ASPLOS VIIPub Date : 1996-10-01DOI: 10.1145/237090.237193
M. Saghir, P. Chow, Corinna G. Lee
{"title":"Exploiting dual data-memory banks in digital signal processors","authors":"M. Saghir, P. Chow, Corinna G. Lee","doi":"10.1145/237090.237193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/237090.237193","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past decade, digital signal processors (DSPs) have emerged as the processors of choice for implementing embedded applications in high-volume consumer products. Through their use of specialized hardware features and small chip areas, DSPs provide the high performance necessary for embedded applications at the low costs demanded by the high-volume consumer market. One feature commonly found in DSPs is the use of dual data-memory banks to double the memory system's bandwidth. When coupled with high-order data interleaving, dual memory banks provide the same bandwidth as more costly memory organizations such as a dual-ported memory. However, making effective use of dual memory banks remains difficult, especially for high-level language (HLL) DSP compilers.In this paper, we describe two algorithms --- compaction-based (CB) data partitioning and partial data duplication --- that we developed as part of our research into the effective exploitation of dual data-memory banks in HLL DSP compilers. We show that CB partitioning is an effective technique for exploiting dual data-memory banks, and that partial data duplication can augment CB partitioning in improving execution performance. Our results show that CB partitioning improves the performance of our kernel benchmarks by 13%-40% and the performance of our application benchmarks by 3%-15%. For one of the application benchmarks, partial data duplication boosts performance from 3% to 34%.","PeriodicalId":281325,"journal":{"name":"ASPLOS VII","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128422202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ASPLOS VIIPub Date : 1996-10-01DOI: 10.1145/237090.237161
K. McKinley, O. Temam
{"title":"A quantitative analysis of loop nest locality","authors":"K. McKinley, O. Temam","doi":"10.1145/237090.237161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/237090.237161","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzes and quantifies the locality characteristics of numerical loop nests in order to suggest future directions for architecture and software cache optimizations. Since most programs spend the majority of their time in nests, the vast majority of cache optimization techniques target loop nests. In contrast, the locality characteristics that drive these optimizations are usually collected across the entire application rather than the nest level. Indeed, researchers have studied numerical codes for so long that a number of commonly held assertions have emerged on their locality characteristics. In light of these assertions, we use the Perfect Benchmarks to take a new look at measuring locality on numerical codes based on references, loop nests, and program locality properties. Our results show that several popular assertions are at best overstatements. For example, we find that temporal and spatial reuse have balanced roles within a loop nest and most reuse across nests and the entire program is temporal. These results are consistent with high hit rates, but go against the commonly held assumption that spatial reuse dominates. Another result contrary to popular assumption is that misses within a nest are overwhelmingly conflict misses rather than capacity misses. Capacity misses are a significant source of misses for the entire program, but mostly correspond to potential reuse between different loop nests. Our locality measurements reveal important differences between loop nests and programs; refute some popular assertions; and provide new insights for the compiler writer and the architect.","PeriodicalId":281325,"journal":{"name":"ASPLOS VII","volume":"10 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115524225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ASPLOS VIIPub Date : 1996-10-01DOI: 10.1145/237090.237144
S. L. Scott
{"title":"Synchronization and communication in the T3E multiprocessor","authors":"S. L. Scott","doi":"10.1145/237090.237144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/237090.237144","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes the synchronization and communication primitives of the Cray T3E multiprocessor, a shared memory system scalable to 2048 processors. We discuss what we have learned from the T3D project (the predecessor to the T3E) and the rationale behind changes made for the T3E. We include performance measurements for various aspects of communication and synchronization.The T3E augments the memory interface of the DEC 21164 microprocessor with a large set of explicitly-managed, external registers (E-registers). E-registers are used as the source or target for all remote communication. They provide a highly pipelined interface to global memory that allows dozens of requests per processor to be outstanding. Through E-registers, the T3E provides a rich set of atomic memory operations and a flexible, user-level messaging facility. The T3E also provides a set of virtual hardware barrier/eureka networks that can be arbitrarily embedded into the 3D torus interconnect.","PeriodicalId":281325,"journal":{"name":"ASPLOS VII","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126446069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ASPLOS VIIPub Date : 1996-09-01DOI: 10.1145/237090.237171
I-Cheng K. Chen, J. Coffey, T. Mudge
{"title":"Analysis of branch prediction via data compression","authors":"I-Cheng K. Chen, J. Coffey, T. Mudge","doi":"10.1145/237090.237171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/237090.237171","url":null,"abstract":"Branch prediction is an important mechanism in modern microprocessor design. The focus of research in this area has been on designing new branch prediction schemes. In contrast, very few studies address the theoretical basis behind these prediction schemes. Knowing this theoretical basis helps us to evaluate how good a prediction scheme is and how much we can expect to improve its accuracy.In this paper, we apply techniques from data compression to establish a theoretical basis for branch prediction, and to illustrate alternatives for further improvement. To establish a theoretical basis, we first introduce a conceptual model to characterize each component in a branch prediction process. Then we show that current \"two-level\" or correlation based predictors are, in fact, simplifications of an optimal predictor in data compression, Prediction by Partial Matching (PPM).If the information provided to the predictor remains the same, it is unlikely that significant improvements can be expected (asymptotically) from two-level predictors, since PPM is optimal. However, there are a rich set of predictors available from data compression, several of which can still yield some improvement in cases where resources are limited. To illustrate this, we conduct trace-driven simulation running the Instruction Benchmark Suite and the SPEC CINT95 benchmarks. The results show that PPM can outperform a two-level predictor for modest sized branch target buffers.","PeriodicalId":281325,"journal":{"name":"ASPLOS VII","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121241370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ASPLOS VIIPub Date : 1996-09-01DOI: 10.1145/237090.237149
D. Grunwald, R. Neves
{"title":"Whole-program optimization for time and space efficient threads","authors":"D. Grunwald, R. Neves","doi":"10.1145/237090.237149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/237090.237149","url":null,"abstract":"Modern languages and operating systems often encourage programmers to use threads, or independent control streams, to mask the overhead of some operations and simplify program structure. Multitasking operating systems use threads to mask communication latency, either with hardwares devices or users. Client-server applications typically use threads to simplify the complex control-flow that arises when multiple clients are used. Recently, the scientific computing community has started using threads to mask network communication latency in massively parallel architectures, allowing computation and communication to be overlapped. Lastly, some architectures implement threads in hardware, using those threads to tolerate memory latency.In general, it would be desirable if threaded programs could be written to expose the largest degree of parallelism possible, or to simplify the program design. However, threads incur time and space overheads, and programmers often compromise simple designs for performance. In this paper, we show how to reduce time and space thread overhead using control flow and register liveness information inferred after compilation. Our techniques work on binaries, are not specific to a particular compiler or thread library and reduce the the overall execution time of fine-grain threaded programs by ≈ 15-30%. We use execution-driven analysis and an instrumented operating system to show why the execution time is reduced and to indicate areas for future work.","PeriodicalId":281325,"journal":{"name":"ASPLOS VII","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1996-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115359655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}