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Rescue to the Curse of universality

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Abstract

From the very beginning of computers, universality has been the core focus in the building of computing machines, such as the universal Turing machine, von Neumann architecture, random-access machines, and universal circuits. Academia has taken universality as the primary principle ever since. However, the Curse of universality, implied from L. G. Valiant’s Universal Circuit, states that computers based on logic circuits cannot be both universal and efficient, as the cost of universality is Ω(n log2n). Though the Curse has been hidden by the rapid advancement of semiconductor technologies, it has been wielding its effects noticeably in recent years. Due to the ending of Dennard scaling and Moore’s law, general-purpose processors leave less room for improvement. Therefore, domain-specific architectures (DSAs), such as deep learning processors, have been exploding, leading to the new golden age of computer architectures. For DSAs, universality is traded off for optimal efficiency. However, we predict that universality will once again be a major concern for post-golden-age computers. In this paper, we discuss how much universality could an efficient computer keep. As a rescue to the Curse, we define and discuss quasi-universal architectures. Quasi-universal architectures can solve any computable problem and are efficient for a wide range of problems. The proposed Recursive-Encapsulated (RENC) architecture achieves maximal universality while keeping optimal efficiency as found in specialized architectures. The discovery of RENC suggests that current golden-age architectures are not Pareto optimal.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018AAA0103300), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61925208, 62102398, U19B2019), Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Science (Grant No. XDB32050200), Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) and Beijing Nova Program of Science and Technology (Grant No. Z191100001119093), CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (Grant No. YSBR-029), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS and Xplore Prize. The authors would like to thank Qian LI from Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Yu XIA from Peking University for their constructive comments in relation to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Lab of Processors, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yongwei Zhao, Zidong Du, Qi Guo, Zhiwei Xu & Yunji Chen

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zhiwei Xu & Yunji Chen

  3. Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing, 100084, China

    Zidong Du

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  1. Yongwei Zhao
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  2. Zidong Du
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  3. Qi Guo
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  4. Zhiwei Xu
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  5. Yunji Chen
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Correspondence to Yunji Chen.

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Zhao, Y., Du, Z., Guo, Q. et al. Rescue to the Curse of universality. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 66, 192102 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-021-3596-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-021-3596-x

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