Improving Energy Efficiency with Dynamic Compiler-Directed Function Unit Power Control

Abstract

In this paper, we present a dynamic-compiler-directed approach which adaptively configures CPU's function units at runtime. It is based on Jikes RVM's dynamic optimizing compiler and is designed to achieve higher energy efficiency. We describe the implementation to support compiler-controlled adaptive FU and the cost/benefit heuristic of selecting optimization targets to save energy. Our experiment results indicate that this approach achieves about 40% to 65% ALU energy reduction, and reduces the total energy consumption by 6.3% to 14%.