Chameleon, an experimental testbed for computer science research, has secured $12 million in funding from the US National Science Foundation to support its next four-year phase. Led by Senior Scientist Kate Keahey from Argonne National Laboratory, Chameleon has been a cornerstone of CS research and education for nearly a decade, serving over 10,000 users and contributing to more than 700 research publications.
The platform enables groundbreaking discoveries in CS systems research, including edge computing, cloud, and artificial intelligence. With this new funding, Chameleon will continue to innovate and support its growing community, expanding frontiers in computer science research. Key partners include the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which has formally integrated as an official Chameleon site and partner, and companies like OpenStack, a mainstream open-source cloud technology.
Chameleon Testbed: A Cornerstone of Computer Science Research and Education
Chameleon, an experimental testbed for computer science (CS) research, has been awarded $12 million to operate a facility supporting CS research on edge, cloud, and AI. This award, backed by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), brings the total investment in Chameleon to over $42 million across four funding phases.
Led by Senior Scientist Kate Keahey from Argonne National Laboratory, Chameleon has been a cornerstone of CS research and education for nearly a decade. The platform has served over 10,000 users, contributing to more than 700 research publications. With this new funding, Chameleon will continue to innovate and support its growing community, enabling groundbreaking discoveries in CS systems research.
A Platform for Innovation
Chameleon is a large-scale, deeply reconfigurable experimental platform built to support CS systems research. The platform enables a wide range of community projects, from developing new operating systems, virtualization methods, and performance variability studies to power management research, software-defined networking, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).
The testbed’s configuration as a cloud, with reconfigurability at the bare metal level, is critical for performance or power management experiments. Its robust infrastructure, located at UChicago and the Texas Advanced Computing Center at The University of Texas at Austin, connected by high-speed network links, will continue to support a diverse range of research projects.
Advancements in Edge Computing and AI/ML Research
In response to the increasing demand for AI/ML research capabilities, Chameleon will be enhancing its infrastructure with the acquisition of new GPUs, including H100s arriving at TACC this fall. This upgrade will bolster support for AI/ML research, enabling more efficient and powerful computational experiments.
Researchers working on large-scale neural networks will benefit significantly from the H100 GPUs, which offer improved performance, faster training times, and the ability to handle larger datasets. This enhancement will facilitate advancements in various AI applications, such as natural language processing, computer vision, and autonomous systems, by providing the necessary computational power to develop and test sophisticated models.
Edge Computing and Internet of Things (IoT) Initiatives
Chameleon’s fourth phase will also see continued efforts in edge computing and IoT, building on the successful initiatives from previous phases. The platform will further develop CHI@Edge, which extends support to Single Board Computers (SBCs) deployed outside traditional datacenters.
This initiative supports a wide array of experiments, from network fingerprinting to autonomous vehicles, and is essential for advancing research in these cutting-edge areas. By extending Chameleon from the datacenter to devices that can be combined with IoT peripherals and cost-effectively deployed at the edge, new areas of exploration have been opened up, especially for projects that use AI in edge-to-cloud settings.
Supporting Reproducibility in CS Research
Chameleon remains dedicated to supporting reproducibility in CS research. The platform will invest in new tools and methodologies to enhance experimental reproducibility, a crucial aspect of scientific research. Ongoing work in systems innovation will ensure that Chameleon continues to provide state-of-the-art experimental capabilities and hardware options.
Modernizing and Stabilizing Infrastructure
Finally, Phase 4 will also focus on modernizing and stabilizing Chameleon’s infrastructure. This includes refreshing and upgrading hardware elements and refactoring testbed software and services to align with the evolving software ecosystem. These improvements are essential for managing the accelerating community growth and ensuring that Chameleon remains a leading platform for experimental methodology development.
A Platform for Future Discoveries
Chameleon’s role as a deeply reconfigurable and highly utilized edge-to-cloud testbed is vital for CS systems research, education, and emergent applications. The platform’s continued support will enable researchers to explore new areas of computer science, driving advancements in edge computing, AI/ML, and IoT, and ultimately leading to breakthroughs in various fields.
External Link: Click Here For More
