Hipeac Unveils 5th Vision Document

The European Network of Excellence on High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation known as HiPEAC (High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation) recently released its fifth HiPEAC Vision, a 72-page document presenting recommendations for Horizon 2020, the European Union (EU) 80-billion-euro Research and Innovation program for 2014-2020.

The HiPEAC network operates under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), "which gathers about 1,500 researchers in computing systems in Europe. It is the biggest such network in the world, offering training, mobility support, dissemination services, and abundant networking facilities to its members," according to the organization’s website. Its mission is "to steer and increase the European research in the area of high-performance and embedded computing systems, and stimulate cooperation between a) academia and industry and b) computer architects and tool builders."

The network is run by a consortium of six universities, one research institute, and five companies, and is coordinated by Belgium’s Ghent University.

The organization says the recommendations in its latest Vision document are "based on an analysis of market trends, a discussion of technology constraints and opportunities, and a review of Europe’s strengths and weaknesses in the field of computing systems."

Said Marc Duranton, researcher at CEA (the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) and chief editor of the Vision document, its key theme "is the imminent end of uninterrupted exponential growth in computation, communication, and storage capacity with potentially disruptive consequences for the global economy." He added, "The current technological solutions do not scale well anymore due to the fundamental laws of physics, and there are no candidates that could replace them in the short term, and continue scaling at the same pace for another decade or more."

HiPEAC network coordinator Koen De Bosschere, a professor at Ghent University, called the Vision document the organization’s "most important deliverable of 2014-2015 … one of the key documents steering the research funding in computing systems in Europe.

"We believe it is definitely important for the ACM Europe community, but also relevant for the global ACM community."