Overview of Swallow --- A Scalable 480-core System for Investigating the Performance and Energy Efficiency of Many-core Applications and Operating Systems

We present Swallow, a scalable many-core architecture, with a current configuration of 480 x 32-bit processors. Swallow is an open-source architecture, designed from the ground up to deliver scalable increases in usable computational power to allow experimentation with many-core applications and the operating systems that support them. Scalability is enabled by the creation of a tile-able system with a low-latency interconnect, featuring an attractive communication-to-computation ratio and the use of a distributed memory configuration. We analyse the energy and computational and communication performances of Swallow. The system provides 240GIPS with each core consuming 71--193mW, dependent on workload. Power consumption per instruction is lower than almost all systems of comparable scale. We also show how the use of a distributed operating system (nOS) allows the easy creation of scalable software to exploit Swallow's potential. Finally, we show two use case studies: modelling neurons and the overlay of shared memory on a distributed memory system.Comment: An open source release of the Swallow system design and code will follow and references to these will be added at a later dat

Status of the CALICE DAQ system

A data acquisition (DAQ) system is described which will be used for the next generation of prototype calorimeters using particle flow algorithms for the International Linear Collider (ILC). The design is sufficiently generic and scalable such that it should have numerous applications either for ILC detectors or elsewhere within high energy physics in general. The DAQ system will be implemented using FPGAs and built using off-the-shelf components and networking hardware with programmable FPGAs. The software for the DAQ system is based on an existing framework, DOOCS, which is a server/client object-oriented system. The design philosophy, current status of the project and its aims are presented in this report.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, for the LCWS08 conference proceeding

Team One Carbon Catcher Design Report

Overview The burning of fossil fuels largely contributes to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. The US Department of Transportation alone contributed almost 6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 (EIA). Due to this, this report proposes recycling captured CO2 into a base for cleaner burning fuel in order to reduce emissions from the transportation industry and many others, which has the potential to impact many areas. Extraction of atmospheric CO2 is possible through a membrane filtration system based on traditional nitrogen generation. The passive filtration system autonomously separates the CO2 from other air components, thereby reducing energy consumption. The system's working sensors and actuators utilize similar energy saving strategies, such as distributing cloud-computing services over multiple servers and mainframes to reduce computing power. The movement of air is directed by a scalable fan device, which is presented as a modular design to allow customization of fan parts to specific size and installation requirements. As an integrated device, Team 1’s Carbon Catcher operates with a high efficiency in order to maximize the commercial opportunity of converting captured CO2 into cleaner fuel while also reducing CO2 emissions and the greenhouse effect. Goal The goal of Team 1’s Carbon Catcher project proposal is to design a cost-effective, scalable, and modular atmospheric carbon dioxide removal system that is capable of being utilized in a range of urban environments and may fit a variety of different customer requirements or requests

Photoelectrochemical water splitting: silicon photocathodes for hydrogen evolution

The development of low cost, scalable, renewable energy technologies is one of today's most pressing scientific challenges. We report on progress towards the development of a photoelectrochemical water-splitting system that will use sunlight and water as the inputs to produce renewable hydrogen with oxygen as a by-product. This system is based on the design principle of incorporating two separate, photosensitive inorganic semiconductor/liquid junctions to collectively generate the 1.7-1.9 V at open circuit needed to support both the oxidation of H_2O (or OH^-) and the reduction of H^+ (or H_2O). Si microwire arrays are a promising photocathode material because the high aspect-ratio electrode architecture allows for the use of low cost, earth-abundant materials without sacrificing energy-conversion efficiency, due to the orthogonalization of light absorption and charge-carrier collection. Additionally, the high surfacearea design of the rod-based semiconductor array inherently lowers the flux of charge carriers over the rod array surface relative to the projected geometric surface of the photoelectrode, thus lowering the photocurrent density at the solid/liquid junction and thereby relaxing the demands on the activity (and cost) of any electrocatalysts. Arrays of Si microwires grown using the Vapor Liquid Solid (VLS) mechanism have been shown to have desirable electronic light absorption properties. We have demonstrated that these arrays can be coated with earth-abundant metallic catalysts and used for photoelectrochemical production of hydrogen. This development is a step towards the demonstration of a complete artificial photosynthetic system, composed of only inexpensive, earth-abundant materials, that is simultaneously efficient, durable, and scalable

Empowering customer engagement by informative billing: a European approach

Programmes aimed at improving end-use energy efficiency are a keystone in the market strategies of leading distribution system operators (DSOs) and energy retail companies and are increasing in application, soon expected to become a mainstream practice. Informative services based on electricity meter data collected for billing are powerful tools for energy savings in scale and increase customer engagement with the energy suppliers enabling the deployment of demand response programmes helping to optimise distribution grid operation. These services are completely in line with Europe’s 2020 strategy for overall energy performance improvement (cf. directives 2006/32/EC, 2009/72/EC, 2012/27/EU). The Intelligent Energy Europe project EMPOWERING involves 4 European utilities and an international team of university researchers, social scientists and energy experts for developing and providing insight based services and tools for 344.000 residential customers in Austria, France, Italy and Spain. The project adopts a systematic iterative approach of service development based on envisaging the utilities’, customers’ and legal requirements, and incorporates the feedback from testing in the design process. The technological solution provided by the leading partner CIMNE is scalable open source Big Data Analytics System coupled with the DSO’s information systems and delivering a range of value adding services for the customer, such as: - comparison with similar households - indications of performance improvements over time - consumption-weather dependence - detailed consumption visualisation and breakdown - personalised energy saving tips - alerts (high consumption, high bill, extreme temperature, etc.) The paper presents the development approach, describes the ICT system architecture and analyses the legal and regulatory context for providing this kind of services in the European Community. The limitations for third party data access, customer consent and data privacy are discussed, and how these have been overcome with the implementation of the “privacy by design” principle is explained

City.Net IES: A sustainability-oriented energy decision support system

A city's energy system processes, as well as the interactions of the energy system with other systems in a city are imperative in creating a comprehensive energy decision support system due to the interdependencies between critical segments of the system. City.Net is a sustainability-oriented decision support system that represents the energy, water, waste, transportation and building systems in a city while taking into consideration the integration and interdependencies that exist between these systems. This paper, which is focused on the integrated energy infrastructure system of a sustainable city, builds on the previous work which employs hierarchical decomposition and multi-domain formulation for the design of complex sustainable systems. The City.Net energy system encompasses the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy in different forms, in several domains and at diverse scales in a city. Also, the interactions of the energy system with other aforementioned systems are incorporated in City.Net. The result is a scalable and flexible energy decision support system which can be simulated and used as a sustainability-analysis tool, encompassing environmental, social and economic sustainability