Intra-Task Dynamic Cache Reconfiguration

Abstract

Optimization techniques are widely used in embedded systems design to improve overall area, performance and energy requirements. Dynamic cache reconfiguration (DCR) is very effective to reduce energy consumption of cache subsystems. Finding the right reconfiguration points in a task and selecting appropriate cache configurations for each phase are the primary challenges in phase-based DCR. In this paper, we present a novel intra-task dynamic cache reconfiguration technique using a detailed cache model, and tune a highly-configurable cache on a per-phase basis compared to tuning once per application. Experimental results demonstrate that our intra-task DCR can achieve up to 27% (12% on average) and 19% (7% on average) energy savings for instruction and data caches, respectively, without introducing any performance penalty.