Energy Minimization on Heterogeneous Systems through Approximate Computing

Energy efficiency is a prime concern for both HPC and conventional workloads. Heterogeneous systems typically improve energy efficiency at the expense of increased programmer effort. A novel, complementary approach is approximating selected computations in order to minimize the energy footprint of applications. Not all applications or application components are amenable to this method, as approximations may be detrimental to the quality of the end result. Therefore the programmer should be able to express algorithmic wisdom on the importance of specific computations for the quality of the end-result and thus their tolerance to approximations.