Name
Title | ||
|---|---|---|
Using dynamic cache management techniques to reduce energy in general purpose processors |
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
The memory hierarchy of high-performance and embedded processors has been shown to be one of the major energy consumers. For example, the Level-1 (L1) instruction cache (I-Cache) of the StrongARM processor accounts for 27% of the power dissipation of the whole chip, whereas the instruction fetch unit (IFU) and the I-Cache of Intel's Pentium Pro processor are the single most important power consuming modules with 14% of the total power dissipation [2]. Extrapolating current trends, this portion is likely to increase in the near future, since the devices devoted to the caches occupy an increasingly larger percentage of the total area of the chip. In this paper, we propose a technique that uses an additional mini cache, the LO-Cache, located between the I-Cache and the CPU core. This mechanism can provide the instruction stream to the data path and, when managed properly, it can effectively eliminate the need for high utilization of the more expensive I-Cache. We propose, implement, and evaluate five techniques for dynamic analysis of the program instruction access behavior, which is then used to proactively guide the access of the LO-Cache. The basic idea is that only the most frequently executed portions of the code should be stored in the LO-Cache since this is where the program spends most of its time. We present experimental results to evaluate the effectiveness of our scheme in terms of performance and energy dissipation for a series of SPEC95 benchmarks. We also discuss the performance and energy tradeoffs that are involved in these dynamic schemes. Results for these benchmarks indicate that more than 60% of the dissipated energy in the I-Cache subsystem can be saved. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2000 | 10.1109/92.902264 | IEEE Trans. VLSI Syst. |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
cache storage,instruction sets,integrated circuit design,low-power electronics,microprocessor chips,storage management,LO-Cache,Level-1 instruction cache,SPEC95 benchmarks,StrongARM processor,data path,dynamic analysis,dynamic cache management techniques,embedded processors,energy dissipation,general purpose processors,instruction fetch unit,memory hierarchy,mini cache,power dissipation,program instruction access behavior,total power dissipation | Energy management,Central processing unit,Memory hierarchy,CPU cache,Computer science,Instruction set,Cache,Electronic engineering,Real-time computing,Pentium,Embedded system,Low-power electronics | Journal |
Volume | Issue | ISSN |
8 | 6 | 1063-8210 |
Citations | PageRank | References |
19 | 1.27 | 20 |
Authors | ||
3 | ||
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikolaos Bellas | 1 | 220 | 23.30 |
| Ibrahim N. Hajj | 2 | 572 | 79.52 |
| Constantine D. Polychronopoulos | 3 | 893 | 129.02 |