Exploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS) (nsf14516)

Exploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS) (nsf14516)

PROGRAM SOLICITATION NSF 14-516 REPLACES DOCUMENT(S): NSF 13-507 National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering      Division of Computing and Communication Foundations      Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure      Division of Information & Intelligent Systems      Division of Computer and Network Systems Submission Window Date(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):      February 10, 2014 - February 24, 2014 IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND REVISION NOTES Revision Summary: This solicitation is a revision of NSF 13-507. The revisions include Introduction of two award classes: EXPLORATORY awards and FULL-SIZE awards. FULL-SIZE awards are similar to the single award class in the previous solicitation; EXPLORATORY is a new class. An increase in the proposal budget limit to $1,000,000 for FULL-SIZE awards. Greater emphasis on the requirement for a collaboration plan as a separate document in a FULL-SIZE proposal. Clarifications and minor revisions of the focus areas. SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS General Information Program Title: Exploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS) Synopsis of Program: Computing systems have undergone a fundamental transformation from the single-processor devices of the turn of the century to today's ubiquitous and networked devices and warehouse-scale computing via the cloud. Parallelism is abundant at many levels. At the same time, semiconductor technology is facing fundamental physical limits and single processor performance has plateaued. This means that the ability to achieve predictable performance improvements through improved processor technologies alone has ended. Thus, parallelism has become critically important. The Exploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS) program aims to support groundbreaking research leading to a new era of parallel computing. Achieving the needed breakthroughs will require a collaborative effort among researchers representing all areas-- from services and applications down to the micro-architecture-- and will be built on new concepts, theories, and foundational principles. New approaches to achieve scalable performance and usability need new abstract models and algorithms, new programming models and languages, new hardware architectures, compilers, operating systems and run-time systems, and must exploit domain and application-specific knowledge. Research is also needed on energy efficiency, communication efficiency, and on enabling the division of effort between edge devices and clouds.