A Cost-Effective Architecture for Vectorizable Numerical and Multimedia
Applications |
| |
Authors: | Francisca Quintana Jesus Corbal Roger Espasa and Mateo Valero |
| |
Affiliation: | (1) Departamento de Informatica y Sistemas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Edificio de Informatica, Campus de Tafira, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Islas Canarias, Spain;(2) Departament d’Arquitectura de Computadors, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain |
| |
Abstract: | This paper analyzes the performance of vector-dominated regions of code in numerical and
multimedia applications in a superscalar + vector architecture and compares it with an eight-way
superscalar processor. The ability to split a program’s
execution into scalar and vector regions allows us to show that (1) as expected, the vector unit is
much better than the wide-issue superscalar at executing the vector-dominated regions of the code;
(2) on the scalar regions, the eight-way superscalar, although better than a four-way superscalar, is
clearly
not worth the extra complexity in terms of extra transistors and potential cycle-time limitations.
Overall, the vector-enhanced superscalar is from 6% to 303% better than an eight-way superscalar.
We also present detailed data on the performance of the memory system, which is usually the key
limiting factor when running numerical and multi-\break media applications. We evaluate two
additional cache
designs that try to alleviate problems created by non-unit stride
memory references. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|