Ensemble learning model for effective thermal simulation of multi-core CPUs

Abstract

An ensemble data-learning approach based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and Galerkin projection (EnPOD-GP) is proposed for thermal simulations of multi-core CPUs to improve training efficiency and the model accuracy for a previously developed global POD-GP method (GPOD-GP). GPOD-GP generates one set of basis functions (or POD modes) to account for thermal behavior in response to variations in dynamic power maps (PMs) in the entire chip, which is computationally intensive to cover possible variations of all power sources. EnPOD-GP however acquires multiple sets of POD modes to significantly improve training efficiency and effectiveness, and its simulation accuracy is independent of any dynamic PM. Compared to finite element simulation, both GPOD-GP and EnPOD-GP offer a computational speedup over 3 orders of magnitude. For a processor with a small number of cores, GPOD-GP provides a more efficient approach. When high accuracy is desired and/or a processor with more cores is involved, EnPOD-GP is more preferable in terms of training effort and simulation accuracy and efficiency. Additionally, the error resulting from EnPOD-GP can be precisely predicted for any random spatiotemporal power excitation.