Title
GPUVolt: modeling and characterizing voltage noise in GPU architectures
Abstract
Voltage noise is a major obstacle in improving processor energy efficiency because it necessitates large operating voltage guardbands that increase overall power consumption and limit peak performance. Identifying the leading root causes of voltage noise is essential to minimize the unnecessary guardband and maximize the overall energy efficiency. We provide the first-ever modeling and characterization of voltage noise in GPUs based on a new simulation infrastructure called GPUVolt. Using it, we identify the key intracore microarchitectural components (e.g., the register file and special functional units) that significantly impact the GPU's voltage noise. We also demonstrate that intercore-aligned microarchitectural activity detrimentally impacts the chip- wide worst-case voltage droops. On the basis of these findings, we propose a combined register-file and execution-unit throttling mechanism that smooths GPU voltage noise and reduces the guardband requirement by as much as 29%.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1145/2627369.2627605
ISLPED
Keywords
Field
DocType
di/dt,gpu architecture,reliability, availability, and serviceability,gpu reliability,inductive noise,modeling techniques,impedance,kernel,noise,microarchitecture,registers
Kernel (linear algebra),Efficient energy use,Computer science,Voltage,Register file,Chip,Electrical impedance,Real-time computing,Electronic engineering,Bandwidth throttling,Microarchitecture
Conference
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1533-4678
11
0.57
References 
Authors
15
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jingwen Leng132711.55
Yazhou Zu2405.20
Minsoo Rhu3110.57
Meeta Sharma Gupta441817.43
Vijay Janapa Reddi52931140.26