Data sharing is necessary to improve system efficiencies, reduce the costs of labor, and make systems smarter and autonomous. However, due to security and privacy concerns, sharing data is not always a trusted solution.

The use of blockchain technology allows decentralized data storage and the ability to be shared among users in a secure and privacy-preserving manner. Blockchain has proven success on securing the cryptocurrency systems (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.), and researched to benefit many aspects of our life, such as self-driving cars, smart healthcare systems, supply chain management, global trade, insurance, logistics, and more. The downside is that blockchain consumes extremely high energy, which prevents many blockchain-based systems from being applied because of limitations on storage.

The NAIST was motivated by the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to develop a ‘sustainable’ blockchain accelerator (BCA) for edge devices. They target to develop a BCA to surpass the CPU, GPU, and ASIC platforms.

In this presentation Professor Tran will show you NAIST’s BCA architecture that expects to surpass even the fastest GPU nowadays (think Tesla V100). The accelerator improves the energy-delay product (EDP) ratio of about 30,000 times compared to Tesla V100, consumes power in the range 1W, which makes it become the best option to embed in autonomous cars. Professor Tran will describe how the NAIST builds a prototype blockchain system running our accelerators embedded in FPGA boards.

About Tran Thi Hong, PhD

Hong is an Assistant Professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) working in the laboratory of Computing Architecture. Hong has her Ph.D. from the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan.

NAIST Lab for Computing Architecture

At the NAIST’s Lab for Computing Architecture, the research staff studies state-of-the-art technologies for next-generation computing paradigms. Their goal is to realize environment-friendly, high-performance, and robust computer systems under energy constraints. From a wide viewpoint (from new theories to LSI implementations), the lab promotes cutting-edge research and the highest degree of education within various research themes, particularly: high-performance, low-energy and dependable computation, and hardware/software co-design.