IEEE Rebooting Computing

Tom Conte, a leading authority on the computing industry, provides a summary of the 2nd Annual Rebooting Computing Week held 6-11 November 2017 in Washington DC. As the IEEE Rebooting Computing co-chair and professor for the Georgia Tech schools of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering, Tom Conte offers insights on the issues and challenges of moving beyond Moore’s Law, and explains how the IEEE Rebooting Computing Initiative provides a framework for collaboration that will drive advancements and develop solutions that will fundamentally change the computing world of the future.

Northrup Grumman is known as the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world and employs more than 68,000 people worldwide. And as our podcast episodes continue, we had the opportunity to interview Robert Voigt, IEEE Senior Member and Product Area Architect for Transformational Computing for Northrup Grumman. According to Mr. Voigt, there are three types of computing that have potential to get the industry beyond Moore's Law and bridge the gap between where we are today and where we need to be tomorrow: quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, and superconducting computing. What's his favorite? Listen and discover.

With Moore's Law ending soon, Stan Williams is at-the-ready to hurdle the challenges to bring about the future of computing and allow the industry to pave new technology roads. Mr. Williams is an executive committee member for the IEEE Rebooting Computing Initiative and the founding director of the Quantum Science Research Laboratory for HP Labs--just the kind of experience required to help computing go beyond Moore's Law and improve computer energy efficiency. And one of the cornerstone efforts to make new technology advancements is neuromorphic computing, something Mr. Williams expresses as a means to the industry's future. While at the 2016 IEEE Technology Time Machine Symposium, Mr. Williams joined other IEEE Rebooting Computing Executive Committee members to share with conference attendees their thoughts on the future of computing and what's next for the initiative. This podcast episode expounds on what Mr. Williams and others had to say while in San Diego for this unique symposium.

For this special edition of our podcast, we are taking a look at the development work on the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS). IEEE is taking a lead role in building a comprehensive, end-to-end view of the computing ecosystem, including devices, components, systems, architecture, and software. In May 2016, IEEE announced the formation of the IRDS under the sponsorship of IEEE Rebooting Computing. And in March 2017, the IRDS team published nine foundational white papers that outline the vital and technical components required to create an official roadmap--something we hope to see in late 2017 or early 2018. To help us better understand the IRDS program and the roadmap it will soon produce, we interviewed three computing experts: Dr. Erik DeBenedictis and Dr. Matthew Marinella, part of the technical staff at Sandia National Labs and Dr. Geoffrey Burr with IBM. Fresh off their panel at the 2017 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium in Monterey, California--part of the "Application Benchmarking, Systems and Architecture, Emerging Research Devices" moderated by IEEE Future Directions Senior Director Bill Tonti--the experts map it out for us in this podcast episode.

As the lead for the 2017 Low-Power Image Recognition Challenge (LPIRC) in Hawaii, Purdue University Professor Yung-Hsiang Lu is blazing a trail for IEEE Rebooting Computing and its mission to reinvent the computer. And because mobile systems are the primary devices for communication and visual data acquisition, the LPIRC brings fresh minds to this ever-evolving landscape of visual recognition in mobile applications--and computing systems aren't far off the trail. This podcast interview with Professor Lu captures the plan for the upcoming LPIRC and the program in general. In addition, Professor Lu shares his perspective on the IEEE Rebooting Computing Initiative's mission and vision. But ultimately we see his role as educator and facilitator for the LPIRC and get a front-row seat to discovering how future generations are collaborating on how to change the industry. Could this be where Moore's Law finds new life? We'll let Professor Lu answer that question.

MIT-educated and employed by IBM's research division is Arvind Kumar--the general chair for the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing (ICRC). As the flagship event for the IEEE Rebooting Computing Initiative, ICRC is a three-day conference packed with high-profile keynote speakers, presentations and panels. Mr. Kumar played a big role in the inaugural ICRC, which boasted stand-room-only events; it was a rousing success for IEEE. From his perspective, there are two big computing trends that will shape the future of the industry. The first has to do with exponential computing performance through Moore's Law scaling. And the second is today's trends on computing, which are vastly different from years' past; this includes the emergence of transactional computing, cognitive computing and high performance computing. Mr. Kumar also notes the popularity of neuromorphic computing, which got a lot of attention at the 2016 ICRC. Nevertheless, Mr. Kumar and his colleagues agree: the computing industry is in dire need of a reset.

To accurately predict the future of an industry, it's best to poll the industry's greatest minds to receive helpful explanations of past successes and failures, obstacles to eliminate, and realistic approaches to seemingly impossible innovation. To that end, we interviewed Bill Tonti, Senior Director of IEEE Future Directions. Dr. Tonti focuses his time on bringing new technologies from incubation periods to fully baked IEEE societies that later define how products and services are formed. On Dr. Tonti's ever-growing to-do list, helping IEEE Rebooting Computing reach its goal of creating a new foundation for the computing industry is a top priority. The initiative is pursuing the horizon beyond Moore's Law--allowing the computing industry to continue giving consumers access to devices and services that otherwise wouldn't be mass-market affordable. Our interview with Dr. Tonti reveals some possible solutions to many of the industry's greatest problems.

Sharing the IEEE Rebooting Computing chair responsibilities with Tom Conte is Elie Track, CEO of nVizix, computing industry knowledge expert and thought leader. Mr. Track explains the "why" behind the initiative and the reasons behind its existence, which ultimately will help define the answers for tomorrow's computing challenges and limitations. Additionally, Mr. Track offers his view on current computing technologies--particularly using his expertise in the superconducting electronics industry. Neuromorphic computing is one of those new technologies, using the brain as a blueprint to help reach new frontiers in computing performance.

As the IEEE Rebooting Computing co-chair and professor for the Georgia Tech schools of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering, Tom Conte has his finger on the pulse of the computing industry. In this podcast episode, Mr. Conte provides a brief history of the issues with today's computing performance and tomorrow's solutions--as we see the future expiration of Moore's Law. The mission and vision of the IEEE Rebooting Computing Initiative is to invite industry experts to solve this problem through cooperation and consensus. And with Mr. Conte at the helm, the initiative and its supporters are poised to work together to go beyond Moore's Law and thus fundamentally change the computing industry forever.