Presentation
CarbonSet: A Dataset to Analyze Trends and Benchmark the Sustainability of CPUs and GPUs
DescriptionOver the years, the chip industry has consistently developed high-performance processors to address the increasing demands of general consumers and data centers across diverse applications. However, the rapid expansion of chip production has significantly increased carbon emissions, raising critical concerns about environmental sustainability. While researchers have previously modeled carbon footprint (CFP) at the system and processor levels, a holistic analysis of sustainability trends encompassing the entire chip lifecycle remains lacking. This paper presents CarbonSet, a comprehensive dataset that integrates sustainability and performance metrics for CPUs and GPUs over the past decade. CarbonSet serves as a benchmark to guide the design of next-generation processors. Leveraging this dataset, we conduct a detailed analysis of sustainability trends in flagship processors from the last ten years. Furthermore, CarbonSet provides insights into the lifecycle phases that contribute most to the CFP of these processors and examines the impact of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom on the computing industry's carbon footprint. This paper shows that modern processor architectures are not yet sustainably designed, with total carbon emissions increasing more than 50x in the past three years due to the surging demand driven by the AI boom. Power efficiency remains a significant architectural challenge, while advanced semiconductor processes place additional demands on designing for sustainable computing. Moreover, consumers need to maximize processor utilization to amortize the embodied carbon better.
Event Type
Networking
Work-in-Progress Poster
TimeSunday, June 226:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
LocationLevel 3 Lobby