Heterogeneous Accelerator Fabric
Straggler cascade effects in mixed-generation accelerator deployments with asymmetric interconnect capabilities.
Scenario Definition
System Class
Mixed accelerator fleet with heterogeneous execution characteristics
Scale
Straggler-dominated regime with reactive overprovisioning
Operational Mode
Mixed training and inference across GPU, TPU, and NPU devices
Device Heterogeneity
High variance in progress rates across device populations
Recognition Pattern
Overprovisioning helps temporarily, straggler discussions intensify, performance diagnosis becomes political, fleet efficiency declines despite investment.
Structural Observations
Straggler cascades are not device failures but structural coupling effects where scheduling decisions incompatible with device heterogeneity create systematic slowdowns.
- Device capability differences create systematic rather than random straggler patterns
- Homogeneous scheduling policies applied to heterogeneous fleets amplify coupling
- Overprovisioning increases device diversity and may worsen coupling effects
- Straggler identification based on device identity misses structural root cause
Stability Projection
Baseline
With Structural Control
Transition type: Partial stabilization via device-aware coupling control
Aggregated Metrics
Normalized ratios without absolute units. Baseline values crossed out, comparison values highlighted.
Decision Implication
Primary insight: If your heterogeneous accelerator fleet shows declining efficiency despite investment, with straggler discussions becoming political and overprovisioning providing only temporary relief, you have a structural coupling problem rooted in scheduling-device mismatch.
Monitoring limitation: Device-level metrics show individual units performing to spec. The problem exists in the interaction between scheduling decisions and device population heterogeneity.
Scaling consideration: Additional capacity increases device diversity and may worsen coupling effects. The problem cannot be provisioned away.
Evidence & Artefacts
Pre-computed analysis outputs for this scenario.
Such structural findings are typically contextualized through a scoped architecture risk assessment.