ZLP-Hardware: A General Framework for Zero-Local-Provisioning of Hardware Resources and Components
Abstract
Conventional hardware architectures frequently assume that each device, machine, or functional unit should locally contain the hardware components required to perform its designated tasks. Although local hardware provisioning can improve autonomy, reduce communication latency, and simplify fault isolation, it can also introduce duplicated components, underutilized capacity, unnecessary maintenance, and increased lifecycle costs. In heterogeneous systems, some hardware requirements may instead be satisfied through shared infrastructure, remote hardware services, modular components, or alternative system configurations.
This paper proposes ZLP-Hardware, a hardware-oriented instantiation of the Zero-Local-Provisioning (ZLP) framework. Its central principle is that the local provisioning quantity of a specified hardware component or resource may be exactly zero for an individual object, provided that the system continues to satisfy its mandatory functional, physical, performance, safety, and reliability requirements. The framework distinguishes the physical presence of hardware within an individual object from the availability of hardware-supported functionality across the complete system. It treats local hardware installation, component capacity, shared hardware allocation, service dependencies, and alternative configurations as coordinated design decisions.
The paper formalizes objects, hardware components, local provisioning variables, functional requirements, collective hardware services, compatibility, capacity, communication overhead, and lifecycle costs. It presents a constrained optimization formulation that jointly determines local hardware configurations and system-level hardware assignments. The model accommodates both continuous capacity decisions and discrete component-presence decisions, including configurations in which selected components are entirely absent from individual devices. A layered implementation architecture, a generic decision procedure, application scenarios, evaluation metrics, and testable hypotheses are also presented.
ZLP-Hardware does not assume that hardware should always be removed or that centralized hardware provision is universally superior. Its applicability depends on whether alternative hardware can satisfy the relevant requirements under realistic operating conditions. The framework is presented as a conceptual and methodological proposal whose distinct contribution and practical benefits require systematic comparison with established hardware architecture, resource allocation, modular design, and hardware virtualization approaches.
Related
- Zero-Local-Provisioning (ZLP): A General Framework for Collective Provisioning of Resources, Capabilities, and Attributes
- Beyond Individual Ownership: ZAC, a General Framework for Collective Provisioning of Resources and Capabilities
- ZLP-Energy: A Zero-Local-Provisioning Framework for Collective Energy Resources, Storage, and Supply
- Beyond Individual Large Language Models: A General Framework for Intelligent and Autonomous Provisioning of AI Capabilities
- Zero-Local-Provisioning for Training (ZLP-Training): A General Framework for Collective Provisioning of Training Capabilities
BibTeX
@misc{zhang2026zlphardware,
title = {{ZLP-Hardware: A General Framework for Zero-Local-Provisioning of Hardware Resources and Components}},
author = {Jincheng Zhang},
howpublished = {Zenodo},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23451113},
url = {https://zenodo.org/records/23451113},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - ZLP-Hardware: A General Framework for Zero-Local-Provisioning of Hardware Resources and Components
AU - Jincheng Zhang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/18
PB - Zenodo
DO - 10.5281/zenodo.23451113
UR - https://zenodo.org/records/23451113
AB - Conventional hardware architectures frequently assume that each device, machine, or functional unit should locally contain the hardware components required to perform its designated tasks. Although local hardware provisioning can improve autonomy, reduce communication latency, and simplify fault isolation, it can also introduce duplicated components, underutilized capacity, unnecessary maintenance, and increased lifecycle costs. In heterogeneous systems, some hardware requirements may instead be satisfied through shared infrastructure, remote hardware services, modular components, or alternative system configurations. This paper proposes ZLP-Hardware, a hardware-oriented instantiation of the Zero-Local-Provisioning (ZLP) framework. Its central principle is that the local provisioning quantity of a specified hardware component or resource may be exactly zero for an individual object, provided that the system continues to satisfy its mandatory functional, physical, performance, safety, and reliability requirements. The framework distinguishes the physical presence of hardware within an individual object from the availability of hardware-supported functionality across the complete system. It treats local hardware installation, component capacity, shared hardware allocation, service dependencies, and alternative configurations as coordinated design decisions. The paper formalizes objects, hardware components, local provisioning variables, functional requirements, collective hardware services, compatibility, capacity, communication overhead, and lifecycle costs. It presents a constrained optimization formulation that jointly determines local hardware configurations and system-level hardware assignments. The model accommodates both continuous capacity decisions and discrete component-presence decisions, including configurations in which selected components are entirely absent from individual devices. A layered implementation architecture, a generic decision procedure, application scenarios, evaluation metrics, and testable hypotheses are also presented. ZLP-Hardware does not assume that hardware should always be removed or that centralized hardware provision is universally superior. Its applicability depends on whether alternative hardware can satisfy the relevant requirements under realistic operating conditions. The framework is presented as a conceptual and methodological proposal whose distinct contribution and practical benefits require systematic comparison with established hardware architecture, resource allocation, modular design, and hardware virtualization approaches.
ER -