Author Archives: Christof Teuscher

CFP: Special Section on Parallel and Distributed Computing Techniques for Non-Von Neumann Technologies

Call for Papers: Special Section on Parallel and Distributed Computing Techniques for Non-Von Neumann Technologies

Traditional computing is heading increasingly into the memory wall, the power wall, the instruction-level-parallelism wall, and other performance limiters. This situation presents new opportunities for non-traditional computer architectures—neuromorphic, quantum, in-memory, and other approaches not based on the von Neumann architecture—to deliver the perpetually needed improvements in execution speed. For this special section of the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), we will be accumulating recent community research in these areas, with a specific focus on parallel and distributed computing architectures, into a curated selection of articles.

About TPDS special sections

TPDS has recently started a new initiative called “special sections.” Compared with regular submissions to TPDS, special sections have some differences: (1) submissions are focused on special topics of interest (similar to special issues); (2) special sections have fixed deadlines for submission and notifications; and (3) special sections have a standing committee of reviewers similar to conferences. This is the second such special section that we are planning.

Topics of interest

The special section is dedicated to novel, emerging, and promising parallel and distributed computing techniques for non-von Neumann technologies. This includes all manner of radical new architectures, but not conventional accelerators, such as GPUs, FPGAs, and SIMD systems or ordinary CPUs embedded in various devices. Articles about software simulations and foundational models of such systems are welcome, but novel programming models designed for conventional hardware are likely to be deemed out of scope. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Neuromorphic computing
  • Biologically-inspired computing
  • Quantum computing
  • Annealing-based computing, both quantum and classical
  • Memristor- and other emerging-device-based computing
  • Approximate, probabilistic, and inexact computing
  • In-memory processing and memory-based computing
  • Analog computing
  • Reversible computing
  • DNA computing
  • Thermodynamic computing
  • Optical computing
  • Chemical computing and chemical reaction networks
  • Cellular computing
  • Collision-based computing

Submission deadline: Sep 1, 2020

More info at https://www.computer.org/digital-library/journals/td/call-for-papers-special-section-on-parallel-and-distributed-computing-techniques-for-non-von-neumann-technologies

DAC 2020 Neuromorphic Computing Workshop

DAC 2020 Neuromorphic Computing Workshop: Opportunities, Challenges, and Perspectives

Register for free at https://teuscher-lab.com/dac2020_neuromorphic_workshop

Alife 2020 paper

Our Alife 2020 paper was accepted for publication.

H. Nguyen, P. Banda, D. Stefanovic, and C. Teuscher, Reservoir Computing with Random Chemical Systems, Proceedings of The 2020 Conference on Artificial Life, MIT Press, pp. 491-499, 2020.  https://doi.org/10.1162/isal_a_00324

Abstract: Top-down engineering of biomolecular circuits to perform specific computational tasks is notoriously hard and time-consuming. Current circuits have limited complexity and are brittle and application-specific. Here we propose an alternative: we design and test a bottom-up constructed Reservoir Computer (RC) that uses random chemical circuits inspired by DNA strand displacement reactions. This RC has the potential to be implemented easily and trained for various tasks. We describe and simulate it by means of a Chemical Reaction Network (CRN) and evaluate its performance on three computational tasks: the Hamming distance and a short- as well as a long-term memory. Compared with the deoxyribozyme oscillator RC model simulated by Yahiro et al., our random chemical RC performs 75.5% better for the short-term and 67.2% better for the long-term memory task. Our model requires an 88.5% larger variety of chemical species, but it relies on random chemical circuits, which can be more easily realized and scaled up. Thus, our novel random chemical RC has the potential to simplify the way we build adaptive biomolecular circuits.

tlab alumnus publishes in Nature

tlab alumnus Dr. Jens Bürger publishes in Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Way to go!

Bürger, J., Laguna-Tapia, A. Individual homogenization in large-scale systems: on the politics of computer and social architectures. Palgrave Commun 6, 47 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0425-4

Abstract: One determining characteristic of contemporary sociopolitical systems is their power over increasingly large and diverse populations. This raises questions about power relations between heterogeneous individuals and increasingly dominant and homogenizing system objectives. This article crosses epistemic boundaries by integrating computer engineering and a historicalphilosophical approach making the general organization of individuals within large-scale systems and corresponding individual homogenization intelligible. From a versatile archeological-genealogical perspective, an analysis of computer and social architectures is conducted that reinterprets Foucault’s disciplines and political anatomy to establish the notion of politics for a purely technical system. This permits an understanding of system organization as modern technology with application to technical and social systems alike. Connecting to Heidegger’s notions of the enframing (Gestell) and a more primal truth (anfänglicheren Wahrheit), the recognition of politics in differently developing systems then challenges the immutability of contemporary organization. Following this critique of modernity and within the conceptualization of system organization, Derrida’s democracy to come (à venir) is then reformulated more abstractly as organizations to come. Through the integration of the discussed concepts, the framework of Large-Scale Systems Composed of Homogeneous Individuals (LSSCHI) is proposed, problematizing the relationships between individuals, structure, activity, and power within large-scale systems. The LSSCHI framework highlights the conflict of homogenizing system-level objectives and individual heterogeneity, and outlines power relations and mechanisms of control shared across different social and technical systems.