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 The Intel®
IXA University team routinely gathers professors, students and Intel
specialists once a year to review the work done by the program
schools as well review the latest news from Intel. This year
we held our conference in Hudson Massachusetts. We brought in
Doug Davis and Matt Adiletta to deliver keynote speeches. Doug is
General Manager of the CIG Infrastructure Processor Division and has
been a strong supporter of the IXA University Program. Matt is an
Intel Fellow and Director of Communication Processor Architecture in
the Intel Communications Group, based in Massachusetts. Below is a
brief overview of the Conference. We have also attached links to the
relevant presentations made.
Opening Remarks: Paul Posco - IXA University Program Manager
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This year we had an
exciting agenda. Paul Posco, the IXA University Program manager,
started off the day providing an overview of the two day session
and opening remarks. During the introductions,
participants described their areas of research. Participants
hailed from Australia, Canada, India, Switzerland, Ireland,
England, China, Japan, Malaysia, and the United States. |
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Keynote Speaker: Doug Davis - IPD GM and Intel VP
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Doug
gave a keynote presentation that covered innovation, the
future of network processors, the importance of
Intel/University relationship to innovation, and the future direction of
the IXA University program. Participants were happy to know
that Intel will continue supporting this program and value
the work of the universities.
Doug's presentation will be available in the near future. |
Keynote
Speaker: Matt Adiletta- Director of Communication Processor
Architecture
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Matt gave a
compelling and interesting talk highlighting the future
direction of Intel’s network processors as well as reviewing the
IXP2XX architecture and proposing interesting research ideas.
The title of the presentation was "A Chat With Matt". As
the title suggests the talk was interactive as Matt fielded many
questions from the audience.
Due to the
proprietary nature of this presentation, we are unable to offer
it for public viewing now. |
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IXP2xxx Silicon Architecture Technical Overview - John Morgan, Intel
Corporation
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John
provided an enlightening presentation of the IXP2xxx hardware
architecture.
His talk included overviews of the IXP2400, the IXP2800,
differences between the two processors, and a detailed
description of the IXP2XXX components.
John's presentation is available
here. |
IXA
Software Portability Framework Technical Overview - Ihab Bishara
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To complement
IXP2XXX hardware discussion, Ihab presented a technical review
of the IXA Software Framework. Included in the discussion:
Microblock programming model and components, architecture, Microblock types
and structure, Microblock I/O, the Dispatch Loop Architecture,
and an example Microblock application.
Ihab's presentation is
available
here.
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Research Challenges in Network Measurement - Prof. Jim Kurose,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Professor Kurose analyzed the
research challenges in network measurement. The
presentation covered the reasons for monitoring/measuring,
what should be measured and concluded with a number of
interesting research activities that are ongoing.
Jim's
presentation is available
here. |
An
IXA-based Network Measurement Node - Prof. Tilman Wolf, University
of Massachusetts Amherst
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As a complement to
Professor Kurose's talk, Professor Wolf presented his research
in passive network
measurement employing the IXP2400. The node captures the packet,
performs anonymization of IP addresses, and collects statistics.
Tilman describes the anonymization process in great detail.
He concluded the presentation with the results they have
achieved, most notably a working solution on the IXP2400 hardware.
Tilman's
presentation is available
here. |
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Research Experiences with the IXP Processor - Prof. Patrick Crowley,
Washington University in St. Louis
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Professor Crowley presented a combination of teaching
experiences and research
at Washington University. Specifically he covered two of the
research projects that are under way. In the first project, Segmented hash tables,
he discussed motivation, basic idea, design, analysis, and implementation
of such on the IXP platform. The second project area,
an innovative use of the IXP network processor, was the
development of Bioinformatics algorithms on the network
processor, taking advantages of the parallel processing of
the IXP platform.
Patrick's presentation is available
here. |
NePSim: A Network Processor Simulator with Power Evaluation
Framework - Prof. Laxmi Bhuyan, University of California Riverside
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Professor Bhuyan treated us to a description of their open-source IXP1200
simulator. He addressed project goals, the
architecture and internals, power efficiency, and the effort
taken in validating the simulator. They are currently working on extending NePSim to the
IXP2400/2800.
Laxmi's
presentation is available
here. |
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Supporting Enterprise Applications with Attached Network Processors
- Ada Gavrilovska, Georgia Institute of Technology
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Ada
presented the IXA related research areas that are ongoing at
Georgia Tech. Most of the presentation covered
application-level services, her area of expertise. She
covered the motivation, service requirements, current
research approaches, and then the specific approach they are
pursuing.
Ada's presentation is available
here. |
Data
Transposition of the Kasumi Block Cipher on the IXP Processor - Berk
Sunar, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Professor Sunar described
his research efforts with the Kasumi Block Cipher on
the IXP network
processor. He described the Kasumi Block Cipher, the
implementation approach they have taken, and the advantages and disadvantage
of their implementation. He concluded the presentation
with a brief overview of other ongoing research.
Berk's
presentation is available
here. |
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Distributed Lock Manager on a Network Processor - Jie Lu, University
of Massachusetts Lowell
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Jie
Lu, a PhD student of Professor Wang, presented the research
of implementing a distributed lock
manager on a network processor. Jie covers the
motivation, background, and the design of the distributed
lock manager.
Jie's presentation is available
here. |
Stareast Platform Overview, Xingang Guo, Intel Corporation
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.
Xingang gave an informative presentation on Stareast, an
IXP425 development platform. He described the value of
the IXP425 in wireless networking research.
He went on to discuss the design requirements of the
platform, its features, architecture, and the software stack
included with the
Stareast platform.
Xingang's presentation is available
here. |
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Design of a QoS Gateway, Prof. Kang Shin, University of Michigan
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Professor Shin presented the research underway on a QoS gateway. He discussed
the motivation for using the
IXP platform, the basic Agent/Manager architecture of
the QoS gateway, design considerations, and described the QoS Gateway solution
implemented on the IXP platform.
Kang's presentation is available
here.
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Wireless Media Transport and Cross-Layer QoS, David Romano, Intel
Corporation
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.
David presented an entertaining and informative presentation
on Wireless Media Transport. He began the presentation with
a wireless television playing Star Wars to demonstrate
current wireless home entertainment products. He
explained wireless LANs and the technical barriers
associated with them in the context of the digital home. He
concluded the talk with the current methodologies they are
pursuing in their research.
David's presentation is available
here. |
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Panel Discussion - IXA Curriculum Programs
We originally slated a
panel discussion on IXA curriculum programs. The purpose was to
discuss experiences, learnings, best practices and challenges in
employing NPUs in the classroom. Due to time constraints we were
unable to include this discussion. We are very interested in this
topic though. Please share your IXP related teaching experiences
with us. What worked? What didn't work? What can
the IXA University Program do to assist?
Send feedback to admin@ixaedu.com
Included below are the
presentations from Professor Steenkiste
from Carnegie Mellon University and Professor Kalyanaraman from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Peter's presentation
is available
here.
Shivkumar's
presentation is available
here.
In addition to the
presentations, we allotted a significant amount of time both days of
the conference for Q&A with IXP experts from Intel. Many
questions were asked relating to the program and the development tools. Special
thanks to the Intel engineers who were present to field questions
from the audience.
We
look forward to seeing you again next year!
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