Miguel Jiménez Arribas, Agustín Martínez Hellín, Manuel Prieto Mateo, Iván Gamino del Río, Andrea Fernández Gallego, Óscar Rodríguez Polo, Antonio da Silva, Pablo Parra, Sebastián Sánchez
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The ability to collect statistics about the execution of a program within a CPU is of the utmost importance across all fields of computing since it allows characterizing the timing performance of a program. This capability is even more relevant in safety-critical software systems, where it is mandatory to analyze the software timing requirements to ensure the correct operation of the programs. Moreover, in order to properly evaluate and verify the extra-functional properties of these systems, besides timing performance, there are many other statistics available on a CPU, such as those associated with its resource utilization. In this paper, we showcase a Performance Measurement Unit (PMU), also known as a Hardware Performance Monitor (HPM), integrated into a RISC-V On-Board Computer (OBC) designed for space applications by our research group. The monitoring technique features a novel approach whereby the events triggered are not counted immediately but instead are propagated through the pipeline so that their annotation is synchronized with the executed instruction. Additionally, we also demonstrate the use of this PMU in a process to characterize the execution model of the processor. Finally, as an example of the statistics provided by the PMU, the results obtained running the CoreMark and Dhrystone benchmarks on the RISC-V OBC are shown.
期刊介绍:
Microprocessors and Microsystems: Embedded Hardware Design (MICPRO) is a journal covering all design and architectural aspects related to embedded systems hardware. This includes different embedded system hardware platforms ranging from custom hardware via reconfigurable systems and application specific processors to general purpose embedded processors. Special emphasis is put on novel complex embedded architectures, such as systems on chip (SoC), systems on a programmable/reconfigurable chip (SoPC) and multi-processor systems on a chip (MPSoC), as well as, their memory and communication methods and structures, such as network-on-chip (NoC).
Design automation of such systems including methodologies, techniques, flows and tools for their design, as well as, novel designs of hardware components fall within the scope of this journal. Novel cyber-physical applications that use embedded systems are also central in this journal. While software is not in the main focus of this journal, methods of hardware/software co-design, as well as, application restructuring and mapping to embedded hardware platforms, that consider interplay between software and hardware components with emphasis on hardware, are also in the journal scope.