Lab-bc: A Serverless Computing Platform for MIT
Educators
Name
lang-jaytlang-meng-eecs-2023-thesis.pdf
Description
Thesis PDF
Size
104.58 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2d29e91010127b99195c88f3bf907061
Author(s)
Lang, Jay
Advisor(s)
Steinmeyer, Joseph D.
Date Issued
June 2023
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
In this thesis, we investigate the deployment of real-world Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools in the digital design classroom. Hands-on experience with these tools is essential to prepare students for state-of-the-art research and industry settings. However, modern EDA tools such as Xilinx’s Vivado have limited to no compatibility with a broad subset of architectures and operating systems used by students. Past digital design courses have sidestepped this problem by providing a lab space stocked with research-grade computers - however, this solution is incompatible with trends in remote and hybrid learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Accordingly, we have designed and implemented lab-bc, a serverless computing platform which allows our students to invoke industry-standard EDA tooling remotely. Our system is significant in that it provides locality transparency: in contrast to existing remote interfaces, students may invoke tools like Vivado as if they are installed on their own devices. This interface grants students the generality, ease-of-use, and performance of a local installation regardless of the hardware they own. lab-bc is deployed onto a set of excess servers in our lab space, where despite frequent spinning disk failures and unreliable power delivery, the system provides high-performance, strongly-sandboxed Vivado instances to MIT students nationwide.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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