From Variability Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Integrated Architectures and Accelerators

Download From Variability Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Integrated Architectures and Accelerators PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319537687
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (195 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis From Variability Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Integrated Architectures and Accelerators by : Abbas Rahimi

Download or read book From Variability Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Integrated Architectures and Accelerators written by Abbas Rahimi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-23 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on computing devices and their design at various levels to combat variability. The authors provide a review of key concepts with particular emphasis on timing errors caused by various variability sources. They discuss methods to predict and prevent, detect and correct, and finally conditions under which such errors can be accepted; they also consider their implications on cost, performance and quality. Coverage includes a comparative evaluation of methods for deployment across various layers of the system from circuits, architecture, to application software. These can be combined in various ways to achieve specific goals related to observability and controllability of the variability effects, providing means to achieve cross layer or hybrid resilience.

From Variability-Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Computing Architectures

Download From Variability-Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Computing Architectures PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781339033259
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (332 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis From Variability-Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Computing Architectures by : Abbas Rahimi

Download or read book From Variability-Tolerance to Approximate Computing in Parallel Computing Architectures written by Abbas Rahimi and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Variation in performance and power across manufactured parts and their operating conditions is an accepted reality in modern microelectronic manufacturing processes with geometries in nanometer scales. This dissertation covers challenges and opportunities in identifying variations, their effects and methods to combat these variations for improved microelectronic devices. We focus on timing errors caused by various sources of variations at different levels. We devise methods to mitigate such errors by jointly exposing hardware variations to the software and by exploiting parallel processing. We investigate methods to predict and prevent, detect and correct, and finally conditions under which errors can be accepted. For each of these methods, our work spans defining and measuring the notion of error tolerance at various levels, from ISA to procedures to parallel programs. These measures essentially capture the likelihood of errors and associated cost of error correction at different levels. The result is a design platform that enables us to further combine these methods for a new joint method of detecting and correcting with accepting errors across the hardware/software interface via memoization (i.e., spatial or temporal reuse of computation). We accordingly devise an arsenal of software techniques and microarchitecture optimizations for improving cost and scale of these methods in massively parallel computing units, such as GP-GPUs and clustered many-core accelerators. We find that parallel architectures and parallelism in general provide the best means to combat and exploit variability to design resilient and efficient systems. Using such programmable parallel accelerator architectures, we show how system designers can coordinate propagation of error information and its effects along with new techniques for memoization and memristive associative memory. This discussion naturally leads to use of these techniques into emerging area of "approximate computing", and how these can be used in building resilient and efficient computing systems.

Parallel Computing Architectures and APIs

Download Parallel Computing Architectures and APIs PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 1351029215
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Parallel Computing Architectures and APIs by : Vivek Kale

Download or read book Parallel Computing Architectures and APIs written by Vivek Kale and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parallel Computing Architectures and APIs: IoT Big Data Stream Processing commences from the point high-performance uniprocessors were becoming increasingly complex, expensive, and power-hungry. A basic trade-off exists between the use of one or a small number of such complex processors, at one extreme, and a moderate to very large number of simpler processors, at the other. When combined with a high-bandwidth, interprocessor communication facility leads to significant simplification of the design process. However, two major roadblocks prevent the widespread adoption of such moderately to massively parallel architectures: the interprocessor communication bottleneck, and the difficulty and high cost of algorithm/software development. One of the most important reasons for studying parallel computing architectures is to learn how to extract the best performance from parallel systems. Specifically, you must understand its architectures so that you will be able to exploit those architectures during programming via the standardized APIs. This book would be useful for analysts, designers and developers of high-throughput computing systems essential for big data stream processing emanating from IoT-driven cyber-physical systems (CPS). This pragmatic book: Devolves uniprocessors in terms of a ladder of abstractions to ascertain (say) performance characteristics at a particular level of abstraction Explains limitations of uniprocessor high performance because of Moore’s Law Introduces basics of processors, networks and distributed systems Explains characteristics of parallel systems, parallel computing models and parallel algorithms Explains the three primary categorical representatives of parallel computing architectures, namely, shared memory, message passing and stream processing Introduces the three primary categorical representatives of parallel programming APIs, namely, OpenMP, MPI and CUDA Provides an overview of Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks (WSN), sensor data processing, Big Data and stream processing Provides introduction to 5G communications, Edge and Fog computing Parallel Computing Architectures and APIs: IoT Big Data Stream Processing discusses stream processing that enables the gathering, processing and analysis of high-volume, heterogeneous, continuous Internet of Things (IoT) big data streams, to extract insights and actionable results in real time. Application domains requiring data stream management include military, homeland security, sensor networks, financial applications, network management, web site performance tracking, real-time credit card fraud detection, etc.

Dependable Embedded Systems

Download Dependable Embedded Systems PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 303052017X
Total Pages : 606 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Dependable Embedded Systems by : Jörg Henkel

Download or read book Dependable Embedded Systems written by Jörg Henkel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-12-09 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Open Access book introduces readers to many new techniques for enhancing and optimizing reliability in embedded systems, which have emerged particularly within the last five years. This book introduces the most prominent reliability concerns from today’s points of view and roughly recapitulates the progress in the community so far. Unlike other books that focus on a single abstraction level such circuit level or system level alone, the focus of this book is to deal with the different reliability challenges across different levels starting from the physical level all the way to the system level (cross-layer approaches). The book aims at demonstrating how new hardware/software co-design solution can be proposed to ef-fectively mitigate reliability degradation such as transistor aging, processor variation, temperature effects, soft errors, etc. Provides readers with latest insights into novel, cross-layer methods and models with respect to dependability of embedded systems; Describes cross-layer approaches that can leverage reliability through techniques that are pro-actively designed with respect to techniques at other layers; Explains run-time adaptation and concepts/means of self-organization, in order to achieve error resiliency in complex, future many core systems.

Supporting Approximate Computing on Coarse Grained Re-configurable Array Accelerators

Download Supporting Approximate Computing on Coarse Grained Re-configurable Array Accelerators PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (124 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Supporting Approximate Computing on Coarse Grained Re-configurable Array Accelerators by : Jonathan Dickerson

Download or read book Supporting Approximate Computing on Coarse Grained Re-configurable Array Accelerators written by Jonathan Dickerson and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent research has shown approximate computing and Course-Grained Reconfigurable Arrays (GGRAs) are promising computing paradigms to reduce energy consumption in a compute intensive environment. CGRAs provide a promising middle ground between energy inefficient yet flexible Freely Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and energy efficient yet inflexible Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). With the integration of approximate computing in CGRAs, there is substantial gains in energy efficiency at the cost of arithmetic precision. However, some applications require a certain percent of accuracy in calculation to effectively perform its task. The ability to control the accuracy of approximate computing during run-time is an emerging topic. This paper presents a rudimentary way to have run-time control of approximation on the CGRA by profiling a function, then generating tables to meet the given approximation accuracy. During the profiling stage, the application is run with all types of approximation, which produces a file that contains the errors for all approximation types (zero, first, third) and the exact value. After the profiling stage, the output is parsed and a table is created with the highest order of approximation type possible and the associated error. Using the auto-generated table, the given tolerance is achieved, while maintaining the highest order of approximation type, which yields the best power savings. The simulation records the metrics associated with each approximation type, which it uses to calculate the achieved power savings for each run.

Programming Massively Parallel Processors

Download Programming Massively Parallel Processors PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Newnes
ISBN 13 : 0123914183
Total Pages : 519 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (239 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Programming Massively Parallel Processors by : David B. Kirk

Download or read book Programming Massively Parallel Processors written by David B. Kirk and published by Newnes. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, Second Edition, teaches students how to program massively parallel processors. It offers a detailed discussion of various techniques for constructing parallel programs. Case studies are used to demonstrate the development process, which begins with computational thinking and ends with effective and efficient parallel programs. This guide shows both student and professional alike the basic concepts of parallel programming and GPU architecture. Topics of performance, floating-point format, parallel patterns, and dynamic parallelism are covered in depth. This revised edition contains more parallel programming examples, commonly-used libraries such as Thrust, and explanations of the latest tools. It also provides new coverage of CUDA 5.0, improved performance, enhanced development tools, increased hardware support, and more; increased coverage of related technology, OpenCL and new material on algorithm patterns, GPU clusters, host programming, and data parallelism; and two new case studies (on MRI reconstruction and molecular visualization) that explore the latest applications of CUDA and GPUs for scientific research and high-performance computing. This book should be a valuable resource for advanced students, software engineers, programmers, and hardware engineers. New coverage of CUDA 5.0, improved performance, enhanced development tools, increased hardware support, and more Increased coverage of related technology, OpenCL and new material on algorithm patterns, GPU clusters, host programming, and data parallelism Two new case studies (on MRI reconstruction and molecular visualization) explore the latest applications of CUDA and GPUs for scientific research and high-performance computing

A Field Guide to Genetic Programming

Download A Field Guide to Genetic Programming PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1409200736
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (92 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Field Guide to Genetic Programming by :

Download or read book A Field Guide to Genetic Programming written by and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genetic programming (GP) is a systematic, domain-independent method for getting computers to solve problems automatically starting from a high-level statement of what needs to be done. Using ideas from natural evolution, GP starts from an ooze of random computer programs, and progressively refines them through processes of mutation and sexual recombination, until high-fitness solutions emerge. All this without the user having to know or specify the form or structure of solutions in advance. GP has generated a plethora of human-competitive results and applications, including novel scientific discoveries and patentable inventions. This unique overview of this exciting technique is written by three of the most active scientists in GP. See www.gp-field-guide.org.uk for more information on the book.

Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition

Download Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN 13 : 0128122765
Total Pages : 700 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (281 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition by : David A. Patterson

Download or read book Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition written by David A. Patterson and published by Morgan Kaufmann. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new RISC-V Edition of Computer Organization and Design features the RISC-V open source instruction set architecture, the first open source architecture designed to be used in modern computing environments such as cloud computing, mobile devices, and other embedded systems. With the post-PC era now upon us, Computer Organization and Design moves forward to explore this generational change with examples, exercises, and material highlighting the emergence of mobile computing and the Cloud. Updated content featuring tablet computers, Cloud infrastructure, and the x86 (cloud computing) and ARM (mobile computing devices) architectures is included. An online companion Web site provides advanced content for further study, appendices, glossary, references, and recommended reading. Features RISC-V, the first such architecture designed to be used in modern computing environments, such as cloud computing, mobile devices, and other embedded systems Includes relevant examples, exercises, and material highlighting the emergence of mobile computing and the cloud

Distributed and Cloud Computing

Download Distributed and Cloud Computing PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN 13 : 0128002042
Total Pages : 671 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (28 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Distributed and Cloud Computing by : Kai Hwang

Download or read book Distributed and Cloud Computing written by Kai Hwang and published by Morgan Kaufmann. This book was released on 2013-12-18 with total page 671 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distributed and Cloud Computing: From Parallel Processing to the Internet of Things offers complete coverage of modern distributed computing technology including clusters, the grid, service-oriented architecture, massively parallel processors, peer-to-peer networking, and cloud computing. It is the first modern, up-to-date distributed systems textbook; it explains how to create high-performance, scalable, reliable systems, exposing the design principles, architecture, and innovative applications of parallel, distributed, and cloud computing systems. Topics covered by this book include: facilitating management, debugging, migration, and disaster recovery through virtualization; clustered systems for research or ecommerce applications; designing systems as web services; and social networking systems using peer-to-peer computing. The principles of cloud computing are discussed using examples from open-source and commercial applications, along with case studies from the leading distributed computing vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Each chapter includes exercises and further reading, with lecture slides and more available online. This book will be ideal for students taking a distributed systems or distributed computing class, as well as for professional system designers and engineers looking for a reference to the latest distributed technologies including cloud, P2P and grid computing. Complete coverage of modern distributed computing technology including clusters, the grid, service-oriented architecture, massively parallel processors, peer-to-peer networking, and cloud computing Includes case studies from the leading distributed computing vendors: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and more Explains how to use virtualization to facilitate management, debugging, migration, and disaster recovery Designed for undergraduate or graduate students taking a distributed systems course—each chapter includes exercises and further reading, with lecture slides and more available online

Parallel Computing

Download Parallel Computing PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : IOS Press
ISBN 13 : 158603796X
Total Pages : 824 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (86 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Parallel Computing by : Christian Bischof

Download or read book Parallel Computing written by Christian Bischof and published by IOS Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ParCo2007 marks a quarter of a century of the international conferences on parallel computing that started in Berlin in 1983. The aim of the conference is to give an overview of the developments, applications and future trends in high-performance computing for various platforms.

Deep Learning for Computer Architects

Download Deep Learning for Computer Architects PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031017560
Total Pages : 109 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Deep Learning for Computer Architects by : Brandon Reagen

Download or read book Deep Learning for Computer Architects written by Brandon Reagen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Machine learning, and specifically deep learning, has been hugely disruptive in many fields of computer science. The success of deep learning techniques in solving notoriously difficult classification and regression problems has resulted in their rapid adoption in solving real-world problems. The emergence of deep learning is widely attributed to a virtuous cycle whereby fundamental advancements in training deeper models were enabled by the availability of massive datasets and high-performance computer hardware. This text serves as a primer for computer architects in a new and rapidly evolving field. We review how machine learning has evolved since its inception in the 1960s and track the key developments leading up to the emergence of the powerful deep learning techniques that emerged in the last decade. Next we review representative workloads, including the most commonly used datasets and seminal networks across a variety of domains. In addition to discussing the workloads themselves, we also detail the most popular deep learning tools and show how aspiring practitioners can use the tools with the workloads to characterize and optimize DNNs. The remainder of the book is dedicated to the design and optimization of hardware and architectures for machine learning. As high-performance hardware was so instrumental in the success of machine learning becoming a practical solution, this chapter recounts a variety of optimizations proposed recently to further improve future designs. Finally, we present a review of recent research published in the area as well as a taxonomy to help readers understand how various contributions fall in context.

International Aerospace Abstracts

Download International Aerospace Abstracts PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1210 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis International Aerospace Abstracts by :

Download or read book International Aerospace Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 1210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Approximate Circuits

Download Approximate Circuits PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9783319993218
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Approximate Circuits by : Sherief Reda

Download or read book Approximate Circuits written by Sherief Reda and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides readers with a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of approximate computing, enabling the design trade-off of accuracy for achieving better power/performance efficiencies, through the simplification of underlying computing resources. The authors describe in detail various efforts to generate approximate hardware systems, while still providing an overview of support techniques at other computing layers. The book is organized by techniques for various hardware components, from basic building blocks to general circuits and systems.

Mathematics and Computation

Download Mathematics and Computation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691189137
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mathematics and Computation by : Avi Wigderson

Download or read book Mathematics and Computation written by Avi Wigderson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to computational complexity theory, its connections and interactions with mathematics, and its central role in the natural and social sciences, technology, and philosophy Mathematics and Computation provides a broad, conceptual overview of computational complexity theory—the mathematical study of efficient computation. With important practical applications to computer science and industry, computational complexity theory has evolved into a highly interdisciplinary field, with strong links to most mathematical areas and to a growing number of scientific endeavors. Avi Wigderson takes a sweeping survey of complexity theory, emphasizing the field’s insights and challenges. He explains the ideas and motivations leading to key models, notions, and results. In particular, he looks at algorithms and complexity, computations and proofs, randomness and interaction, quantum and arithmetic computation, and cryptography and learning, all as parts of a cohesive whole with numerous cross-influences. Wigderson illustrates the immense breadth of the field, its beauty and richness, and its diverse and growing interactions with other areas of mathematics. He ends with a comprehensive look at the theory of computation, its methodology and aspirations, and the unique and fundamental ways in which it has shaped and will further shape science, technology, and society. For further reading, an extensive bibliography is provided for all topics covered. Mathematics and Computation is useful for undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics, computer science, and related fields, as well as researchers and teachers in these fields. Many parts require little background, and serve as an invitation to newcomers seeking an introduction to the theory of computation. Comprehensive coverage of computational complexity theory, and beyond High-level, intuitive exposition, which brings conceptual clarity to this central and dynamic scientific discipline Historical accounts of the evolution and motivations of central concepts and models A broad view of the theory of computation's influence on science, technology, and society Extensive bibliography

Near Threshold Computing

Download Near Threshold Computing PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319233890
Total Pages : 105 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Near Threshold Computing by : Michael Hübner

Download or read book Near Threshold Computing written by Michael Hübner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-14 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores near-threshold computing (NTC), a design-space using techniques to run digital chips (processors) near the lowest possible voltage. Readers will be enabled with specific techniques to design chips that are extremely robust; tolerating variability and resilient against errors. Variability-aware voltage and frequency allocation schemes will be presented that will provide performance guarantees, when moving toward near-threshold manycore chips. · Provides an introduction to near-threshold computing, enabling reader with a variety of tools to face the challenges of the power/utilization wall; · Demonstrates how to design efficient voltage regulation, so that each region of the chip can operate at the most efficient voltage and frequency point; · Investigates how performance guarantees can be ensured when moving towards NTC manycores through variability-aware voltage and frequency allocation schemes.

Silicon Photonics for High-Performance Computing and Beyond

Download Silicon Photonics for High-Performance Computing and Beyond PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 1000480143
Total Pages : 391 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Silicon Photonics for High-Performance Computing and Beyond by : Mahdi Nikdast

Download or read book Silicon Photonics for High-Performance Computing and Beyond written by Mahdi Nikdast and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silicon photonics is beginning to play an important role in driving innovations in communication and computation for an increasing number of applications, from health care and biomedical sensors to autonomous driving, datacenter networking, and security. In recent years, there has been a significant amount of effort in industry and academia to innovate, design, develop, analyze, optimize, and fabricate systems employing silicon photonics, shaping the future of not only Datacom and telecom technology but also high-performance computing and emerging computing paradigms, such as optical computing and artificial intelligence. Different from existing books in this area, Silicon Photonics for High-Performance Computing and Beyond presents a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art technology and research achievements in applying silicon photonics for communication and computation. It focuses on various design, development, and integration challenges, reviews the latest advances spanning materials, devices, circuits, systems, and applications. Technical topics discussed in the book include: • Requirements and the latest advances in high-performance computing systems • Device- and system-level challenges and latest improvements to deploy silicon photonics in computing systems • Novel design solutions and design automation techniques for silicon photonic integrated circuits • Novel materials, devices, and photonic integrated circuits on silicon • Emerging computing technologies and applications based on silicon photonics Silicon Photonics for High-Performance Computing and Beyond presents a compilation of 19 outstanding contributions from academic and industry pioneers in the field. The selected contributions present insightful discussions and innovative approaches to understand current and future bottlenecks in high-performance computing systems and traditional computing platforms, and the promise of silicon photonics to address those challenges. It is ideal for researchers and engineers working in the photonics, electrical, and computer engineering industries as well as academic researchers and graduate students (M.S. and Ph.D.) in computer science and engineering, electronic and electrical engineering, applied physics, photonics, and optics.

Computer Architecture

Download Computer Architecture PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 012383872X
Total Pages : 858 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (238 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Computer Architecture by : John L. Hennessy

Download or read book Computer Architecture written by John L. Hennessy and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012 with total page 858 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The computing world is in the middle of a revolution: mobile clients and cloud computing have emerged as the dominant paradigms driving programming and hardware innovation. This book focuses on the shift, exploring the ways in which software and technology in the 'cloud' are accessed by cell phones, tablets, laptops, and more