Rethinking Divide and Conquer-Towards Holistic Interfaces of the Computing Stack

Abstract

We argue that the abstractions between the layers of the computing stack and the components of computing systems, especially the HW/SW interface, have to be rethought to cope with the ever-growing complexity of problem domains and their manifestations in the underlying computing systems. The divide and conquer approach to hardware/software with a minimal interface is unable to cope with complexity. Rethinking the abstractions and interfaces between the application, system, and architecture can lead to significant benefits in improving performance, efficiency, resilience, security, and programmability, at the same time.