SNEAK PEEK
Vitalik’s “glue and coprocessor” architecture optimizes resource-intensive computations efficiently.
Ethereum’s EVM uses this architecture to balance business logic with intensive operations.
Cryptography benefits from specialized processing in modern computing, enhancing efficiency and security.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin discusses a modern computing trend that leverages a “glue and coprocessor” architecture to enhance efficiency in resource-intensive computations. This architecture divides tasks into “business logic” and “expensive work,” enabling a more modular and efficient approach to complex computational processes.
This method optimizes performance across various fields, particularly in cryptography, by separating general tasks managed by the glue and specific, highly intensive tasks handled by coprocessors.
Buterin highlights that tasks can be split into two main components in many resource-intensive computations today. The first is a relatively small amount of complex “business logic,” which involves less computational power but requires high generality.
The second component involves “expensive work,” a large volume of structured and resource-heavy operations. This separation allows for more efficient processing, with each type of task being handled by different specialized architectures.
In the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), this concept is already being practiced. For instance, when processing a transaction, the EVM handles business logic tasks, like extracting data and managing small operations, through higher-level languages such as Solidity.
Meanwhile, the more intensive operations, such as storage reads and cryptographic computations, are managed by specialized modules within the client code. This division ensures that the EVM can efficiently process transactions while maintaining flexibility for developers.
Buterin also points to modern cryptography as another area benefiting from this architecture. For example, the computational workload is divided similarly in SNARKs (Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge) and STARKs (Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge).
The business logic is often written in general-purpose programming languages, while the expensive cryptographic operations are optimized through specialized code. This approach enhances efficiency and maintains the security and openness necessary for cryptographic applications.
The proposed model also known as the “glue and coprocessor” design, is an important development in computing because it depicts a way of dealing with general and intensive computations.
This is a model for achieving the separation of these tasks and the optimization of each and as such provides a pathway toward making other types of computational processes, such as cryptographic, faster and more secure. Indeed, in this regard this trend is still developing and it seems that in future will affect significantly different technological fields concerning with the effective management of the resource-consuming computations.
The post Vitalik Buterin Explores Efficient Computing with “Glue and Coprocessor” Architecture appeared first on Today NFT News.
