众核处理器的共享一级指令缓存研究

众核处理器设计在芯片面积上受到了巨大挑战,如何将有限的芯片面积投入到运算能力中,是众核处理器体系结构研究的热点。聚焦众核处理器的指令缓存结构设计,研究通过在多核核心之间共享一级指令缓存,以获取指令系统及处理器流水线性能的提升。给出了共享指令缓存的结构设计,对该结构进行了节拍级精确的性能模拟,并通过RTL级代码的综合得到了面积开销和时序指标。测试结果表明,共享指令缓存可以降低11%~27%的缓存脱靶率,提升4%~7%的流水线性能。     

一种基于数据访问特征的层次化缓存优化设计

随着片上可集成的处理器核数增加,多核处理器的片上通信延迟不断增大,目录存储开销也随之线性增长.层次化缓存结构将片上缓存递归划分为多级区域,并将数据复制到各级区域内以减小片上通信延迟,同时通过多级目录结构降低了目录存储开销.文中通过对数据访问特征进行分析,提出一种新型改进层次化缓存结构(EHCD),将从片外读入的数据直接...     

基于预取和缓存原理的片上Flash加速控制器设计

为了提高片上Flash在嵌入式应用中的读取速度,提出了一种基于预取和缓存原理的片上Flash加速控制器。该控制器包括预取缓存和高速缓存两种加速方案。其中预取缓存方案采用位宽扩展和预取技术加速顺序指令的读取,并采用分支缓存存储非顺序指令,降低由非顺序指令造成的预取缺失代价;而高速缓存方案采用组相联和路预测技术,提高指令重用率,减少Flash访问次数,降低系统功耗。针对不同的应用场景,两种加速方案既可通过寄存器来静态切换,也可通过软件流程来自适应动态切换,从而获得最佳的读取速度提升。多项基准程序的测试结果表明了所提出的片上Flash加速控制器在性能和功耗优化上的可行性和高效性。     

众核处理器中使用写掩码实现混合写回/写穿透策略

高速缓存采用写回策略,能极大地节省对片上网络和访存带宽的消耗,这对于片上众核(大于16核)的结构尤为重要.与通常多核系统中基于目录/总线的写无效或写更新协议不同,文中给出了片上实现域一致性存储模型和基于硬件锁的缓存一致性协议的方案并提出了在L1高速缓存保存写掩码的方法,用以记录本地更新缓存块的字节位置,解决了写回策略下伪共享带来的缓存一致性问题.文中还进一步提出两种优化掩码存储空间开销的新方法:通过设定程序中较少出现的、长度为1~3字节的写指令为写穿透,在L1中每4字节设置一位写掩码,将写掩码的芯片面积开销压缩到字节粒度的27.9%;设计项数为L1缓存块总数12.5%的多路写掩码缓存,在不损失性能的情况下,将面积开销压缩到字节粒度的17.7%.搭建的众核平台Godson-T采用域一致性存储模型,使用写掩码实现混合写回/写穿透缓存策略(临界区内写穿透,临界区外写回).实验使用splash2的3个程序和2个生物计算程序进行评估.结果表明,相对于完全写穿透,混合写回策略在32和64线程的配置下普遍获得24%以上的性能提升,性能略优于完全写回,并且采用两种优化空间开销的新方法后性能无损失.     

基于存储队列的Cache访问性能优化研究

高性能处理器普遍采用片上集成大容量复杂结构的一级Cache提高处理器性能,但随着Cache容量和复杂度的增加,访问Cache所产生的访存延迟和功耗明显增加;基于存储队列,提出了一种通过减少Cache访问次数来降低功耗和延迟的方法,利用存储队列来缓存Load/Store指令的数据,并且当存储队列不满时,通过空闲入口暂存已经完成的仿存数据,提高了连续访存数据的复用率,减少了Cache的访问次数;仿真结果显示,该方法在增加少量的控制逻辑基础上,显著减少了Cache的访问次数,降低了Cache的功耗,减少了访存延迟,加快了执行速度。     

针对组相联缓存的无效缓存路访问混合过滤机制研究

近年来,功耗成为处理器设计领域的关键问题之一.传统应对功耗的方法如DVFS(Dynamic VoltageFrequency Scaling)目前遭遇了收益递减律.随着多核/众核处理器的普及化,片上缓存占有了越来越多的CPU芯片面积和功耗.针对降低功耗的问题,文中提出了通过过滤不必要的缓存路访问来降低缓存动态功耗的方法.该方法包括采用无效访问过滤器(Invalid Filter)来消除对含无效数据块的缓存路的访问;采用指令数据访问过滤器(I/D Filter)来消除对与访问类型(指令或数据)不匹配的数据块所在的缓存路的访问;以及采用tag低位过滤器(Tag-2Filter)来消除对tag低位不匹配的数据块所在的缓存路的访问.文中提出将以上3种方法合并,称为Invalid+I/D+Tag-2Filter,以期取得更好的效果.通过分析和实验验证了3种方法的有效性和互补性.同时,实验也表明,与Invalid+I/D Filter相比,Invalid+I/D+Tag-2Filter在64KB 4路组相联缓存上可以取得19.6%～47.8%(平均34.3%)的效果提升,在128KB 8路组相联缓存上可以取得19.6%～55.2%(平均39.2%)的效果提升;与Invalid+Tag-2Filter相比,Invalid+I/D+Tag-2Filter在64KB 4路组相联缓存上可以取得16.1%～27.7%(平均16.6%)的效果提升,在128KB 8路组相联缓存上可以取得6.9%～44.4%(平均25.0%)的效果提升.     

重用感知的非一致缓存迁移策略研究

随着工艺的持续进步,多核处理器集成了越来越多的核以及片上缓存系统,因此利用非一致缓存架构(NUCA)应对片上多核处理器的缓存系统中逐渐增大的线延迟。高效的缓存块迁移策略对整个缓存系统至关重要。当前动态非一致缓存架构(D-NUCA)中的缓存块迁移策略未考虑缓存块的历史访问信息,导致缓存块在不同的bank之间抖动从而增加缓存块的访问延迟。为此,提出一种重用感知的缓存块迁移(RABM)策略,采用缓存块的历史迁移信息来预测将来的缓存块迁移,从而提升D-NUCA的性能以及降低整个缓存系统的功耗。基于PARSEC基准测试程序的全系统仿真结果显示,与D-NUCA相比,基于RABM的D-NUCA可以使每时钟周期指令数平均提高9.6%,片上缓存系统功耗降低14%。     

基于横向局部性的多核计算模型

片内多核已成为延长摩尔定律的方式,并行算法设计、编程模型、编译器和运行时系统都需要利用计算模型进行分析。现有多核模型对线程间共享缓存等资源的竞争已有较精确的模型,但是对于线程间数据共享考虑较少。提出线程间共享缓存的横向局部性和任务共享率概念,基于此扩展串行存储层次模型RAM(h),提出考虑任务共享率的多核并行计算模型MRAM(h)。     

零级指令缓存研究综述

高效能是处理器设计的重要指标。由于指令部件在处理器芯片中开始占据越来越多的芯片面积,消耗了较多的芯片功耗,研究人员提出了零级指令缓存设计。零级指令缓存容量小、访问耗能低,与流水线紧密耦合、取指命中时可以门控流水线部分逻辑。因此,零级指令缓存可以有效提高流水线指令部件的能效比。综述了现有的零级指令缓存的不同结构、各结构的发展与应用情况;展望了零级指令缓存设计的未来研究思路。     

基于SESC仿真器的存储预取器设计

仿真器是在宿主机上运行并能模拟目标体系结构机器行为的一种软件系统,它可以解释并执行目标体系结构机器上可执行的程序,同时可提供运行时的指令和事件相关记录,以及目标体系结构机器的性能统计参数。系统级体系结构仿真器是可以作为一个虚拟目标机器运行的软件系统,它可以实现对单(多)处理器、内存系统、Cache和外部设备等子系统的功能模拟。本文根据多核处理器结构特点,研究体系结构仿真器与测试程序的设计方法。利用体系结构仿真器,分析不同结构的多核处理器片外存储访问需求,讨论片外存储访问带宽对计算性能的影响问题。总结出多核系统片外存储器访问的机制与需求,以及片外访存与程序特征的关系。     

一种面向软件管理内存层次的简易数据分块方法

考虑到硬件管理Cache 多级存储结构在功耗和面积方面的开销过大,众核处理器倾向于采用软件管理的多级存储结构,这就需要软件规划好程序的数据在各级存储上的布局和传输.尝试了一种依赖程序原有循环结构和问题规模的简易数据自动分块方法,根据循环层内的数据访存范围进行相应的分块,避免数据复杂的依赖关系分析,使得该方法易于在编译器中实现.同时可根据需要进一步结合程序变换如循环交换、循环联合和循环分裂等方法得到更佳的分块参数.实验结果表明,在大多数问题规模下与一般分块方法的优化性能相当,但在某些特定问题规模下能够获得较高的优化性能.     

Area efficient remote code execution platform with on-demand instruction manager for cloud-connected code executable IoT devices

An energy-area efficient cloud-connected software execution architecture in IoT sensor processor is proposed. A remotely installed sensor device such as an environmental activity monitor is commonly implemented using the conventional embedded processor only providing the fixed services, which includes statically compiled embedded software in on-chip flash memory. Instead of conventional on-chip flash memory for an instruction code area, we adopt an virtually mapped internal memory concept to realize cloud-connected software execution, in where the remote storage area via the IoT platform is indirectly mapped onto the physical address space of the instruction memory using a dynamic address translation technique. The proposed cloud-connected architecture of the system enables on-demand code execution for the instructions, which are fetched from the cloud-side remote storage area in the runtime, instead of using a directly-connected on-chip instruction bus. The proposed storage-less approach may be adopted to reduce the high access current and large chip area overhead by eliminating the on-chip code flash memory. To reduce the access current overhead in order to retrieve the requested instruction, a small-sized RAM scratch pad is adopted for retaining the hot-spot instruction code and early filled with pre-estimated instruction sector. The experimental results show that the proposed technique reduces the energy consumption and packet delay of an IoT device for executing the remote embedded software, as well as the reduced chip area by realizing a storage-less sensor architecture.     

SoMMA: A software-managed memory architecture for multi-issue processors

Embedded processors rely on the efficient use of instruction-level parallelism to answer the performance and energy needs of modern applications. Though improving performance is the primary goal for processors in general, it might lead to a negative impact on energy consumption, a particularly critical constraint for current systems. In this paper, we present SoMMA, a software-managed memory architecture for embedded multi-issue processors that can reduce energy consumption and energy-delay product (EDP), while still providing an increase in memory bandwidth. We combine the use of software-managed memories (SMM) with the data cache, and leverage the lower energy access cost of SMMs to provide a processor with reduced energy consumption and EDP. SoMMA also provides a better overall performance, as memory accesses can be performed in parallel, with no cost in extra memory ports. Compiler-automated code transformations minimize the programmer's effort to benefit from the proposed architecture. The approach shows average speedups of 1.118x and 1.121x, while consuming up to 11% and 12.8% less energy when comparing two modified ρVEX processors and their baselines, at full-system level comparisons. SoMMA also shows reduction of up to 41.5% on full-system EDP, maintaining the same processor area as baseline processors.     

Effects of program compression

The size of the program code has become a critical design constraint in embedded systems, especially in handheld, battery operated devices. Large program codes require large memories, which increase the size and cost of the chip. In addition, the power consumption is increased due to higher memory I/O bandwidth. Program compression is one of the most often used methods to reduce the size of the program code. In this paper, two compression approaches, dictionary-based compression and instruction template-based compression, were evaluated on a customizable processor architecture with parallel resources. The effects on area and power consumption were measured. Dictionary-based compression reduced the area at best by 77% and power consumption by 73%. Instruction template-based compression resulted in increase in both area and power consumption and hence turned out to be impractical.     

Acyclic orientation graph coloring for software-managed memory allocation

This paper presents a novel compiler algorithm,called acyclic orientation graph coloring(AOG coloring),for managing data objects in software-managed memory allocation.The key insight is that softwaremanaged memory allocation could be solved as an interval coloring problem,or equivalently,an acyclic orientation problem.We generalize graph coloring register allocation to interval coloring memory allocation by maintaining an acyclic orientation to the currently colored subgraph.This is achieved with some well-crafted heuristics,including Aggressive Simplify that does not necessarily preserve colorability and Best-Fit Select that assigns intervals(i.e.,colors)to nodes by possibly adjusting the colors already assigned to other nodes earlier.Our algorithm generalizes and subsumes as a special case the classical graph coloring register allocation algorithm without notably increased complexity:it deals with memory allocation while preserving the elegance and practicality of traditional graph coloring register allocation.We have implemented our algorithm and tested it on Appel’s 27921 interference graphs for scalars(augmented with node weights).Our algorithm outperforms Memory Coloring,the best in the literature,for software-managed memory allocation,on 98.64%graphs,in which,the gaps are more than 20%on 68.31%graphs and worse only on 0.29%graphs.We also tested it on all the 73 DIMACS weighted benchmarks(weighted graphs),AOG Coloring outperforms Memory Coloring on all of the benchmarks,in which,the gaps are more than 20%on 83.56%graphs.     

多核Cache稀疏目录性能提升方法综述

受限于功耗,十多年前通用微处理器就停止追求更高的主频转而向集成更多处理器核的方向发展;同时,随着晶体管密度按摩尔定律不断提高,单片可集成的处理器核数成倍增长,片上多核、众核处理器已成为高性能微处理器发展的主流。未来千核级通用众核处理器支持共享存储编程模型是一种必然趋势,但传统的Cache一致性目录结构面临着查找延迟高、目录项替换频繁以及硬件代价和功耗可扩展性有限等问题。稀疏目录实现了传统目录结构硬件开销与一致性维护效率的折衷,被认为是众核处理器维护Cache一致性的一种高能效、可扩展结构。综述了近年来提高稀疏目录性能的相关研究与方法,并对其在面积、访问延迟、功耗和实现复杂性等方面进行分析,归纳出这些方法各自的优点和存在的不足,对创新设计未来高性能众核处理器共享存储体系结构具有一定的参考价值。     

Variable Length Instruction Compression on Transport Triggered Architectures

The memories used for embedded microprocessor devices consume a large portion of the system’s power. The power dissipation of the instruction memory can be reduced by using code compression methods, which may require the use of variable length instruction formats in the processor. The power-efficient design of variable length instruction fetch and decode is challenging for static multiple-issue processors, which aim for low power consumption on embedded platforms. The memory-side power savings using compression are easily lost on inefficient fetch unit design. We propose an implementation for instruction template-based compression and two instruction fetch alternatives for variable length instruction encoding on transport triggered architecture, a static multiple-issue exposed data path architecture. With applications from the CHStone benchmark suite, the compression approach reaches an average compression ratio of 44% at best. We show that the variable length fetch designs reduce the number of memory accesses and often allow the use of a smaller memory component. The proposed compression scheme reduced the energy consumption of synthesized benchmark processors by 15% and area by 33% on average.     

一种简便的栈式片上内存动态管理方法

受功耗、面积的限制,高性能众核处理器倾向于将片上SRAM组织成SPM这种非Cache形式,与片外主存构成多级存储架构。这种存储架构需要软件显式管理应用程序中的数据存储和传输。为此,本文提出了一种简便的栈式片上内存动态管理方法。该方法首先选择应用程序中可进行访存优化的数组变量,分析这些数组变量的生存周期,根据生存周期相干情况提出一种栈式的动态片上内存管理方法,将更多的数组变量动态存储在片上内存中,同时结合数组变量的优化收益评估将那些访存密度高的变量有限布局在片上内存中。实验结果验证了该方法的有效性。     

Low-power multimedia RISC

Battery-powered multimedia systems challenge designers to pack enormous signal-processing power into a low-power chip. The V830 chip achieves this by combining a special instruction set and fast, 32-bit parallel multiply-adder with internal RAM for quicker memory accesses. This gives the newest entry in the V800 series signal-processing capabilities as fast as the latest fixed-point DSPs