Preflight Checks for Hardware Accelerator Reliability

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Solution Overview

Problem

Hardware failures in large-scale distributed computing systems, such as faulty hardware accelerators and interconnection failures, can cause workload terminations, inaccurate outputs, and are difficult to diagnose, leading to inefficiencies and downtime.

Innovation Solution

A preflight check mechanism is implemented to verify the functionality of hardware accelerators and interconnections before performing computing workloads. This involves installing a program code package on each hardware accelerator machine, which includes a task action based on the workload characteristics, and performing a sequence of operations to detect failures, allowing for reassignment of workloads to proper resources.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If hardware accelerators are deployed in large-scale distributed computing systems, then computation power and productivity are improved, but hardware failures become more common and difficult to diagnose

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecomputation powerVSAvoidhardware failure rate

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preflight checks that perform a sequence of operations on hardware accelerators before assigning workloads. This preliminary action detects potential failures in advance, including cases where hardware accelerators may fail after deployment but before workload assignment, thereby preventing job failures and improving overall system reliability while maintaining high computation power.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Difficulty of detecting and measuring

If health-checking modules are used to detect hardware failures, then some failures can be identified, but many failures remain obscured and undiagnosed

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefailure detection capabilityVSAvoidundiagnosed failures

Core Design Contradiction:

Difficulty of detecting and measuringVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the failure detection process into multiple distinct operations within a preflight check sequence. These operations include installing program code packages, executing diagnostic tasks, and performing specific test sequences on hardware accelerators. This segmentation enables comprehensive detection of various failure modes that a single health-checking operation would miss, reducing lost information about system health.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the results of preflight check operations are analyzed to determine whether hardware accelerators are functioning correctly. This feedback loop provides detailed information about the state of hardware accelerators, enabling the system to identify and diagnose failures that would otherwise remain obscured, thereby improving both detection capability and reducing information loss.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Productivity

If workloads are assigned to hardware accelerators without preflight checks, then system efficiency is maintained, but job failures occur due to undetected hardware issues

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem efficiencyVSAvoidjob failure rate

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preflight checks as a preliminary action before workload assignment. The sequence of operations includes installing program code packages, executing diagnostic tasks, and verifying hardware accelerator functionality. This preliminary detection prevents job failures by identifying hardware issues before they impact productivity, thereby maintaining system efficiency while improving reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Reliability

If preflight checks are performed on all hardware accelerators, then failure detection is improved, but computation time and resource overhead increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefailure detection accuracyVSAvoidcomputation time overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements partial preflight checks that focus on the most critical diagnostic operations rather than exhaustive testing of all hardware components. The sequence of operations is designed to detect the most common and impactful failure modes with minimal time overhead. This partial action approach maintains high failure detection accuracy while reducing the time loss compared to comprehensive checking.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS12314753B2Preflight checks for hardware accelerators in a distributed system

Publication Date: 2025.05.27 GOOGLE LLC

AI summary

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for performing preflight checks of a distributed computing system, are described. In one aspect, a method includes assigning a computing workload to a first subset of hardware accelerator machines each having one or more hardware accelerators. A preflight check on the first subset is performed before performing the computing workload to verify the functionality of each machine in the first subset. For each hardware accelerator machine of the first subset, a program code package is installed, including a task action based at least in part on characteristics of the computing workload. The task action including a sequence of operations is performed on the hardware accelerator machine to determine whether the task action fails. Whenever the task action fails, the computing workload is re-assigned to a second subset of hardware accelerator machines different from the first subset.