An efficient wakeup design for energy reduction in high-performance superscalar processors

Kuo Su Hsiao, Chung Ho Chen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In modern superscalar processors, the complex instruction scheduler could form the critical path of the pipeline stages and limit the clock cycle time. In addition, complex scheduling logic results in the formation of a hot spot on the processor chip. Consequently, the latency and power consumption of the dynamic scheduler are two of the most crucial design issues when developing a high-performance microprocessor. We propose an instruction wakeup scheme that remedies the speed and power issues faced with conventional designs. This is achieved by a new design that separates RAM cells from the match circuits. This separated design is such that the advantages of the CAM and bitmap RAM schemes are retained, while their respective disadvantages are eliminated. Specifically, the proposed design retains the moderate area advantage of the CAM scheme and the low power and low latency advantages of the bit-map RAM scheme. The experimental results show that the proposed design saves power consumption by 80% compared to the traditional CAM-based design and 18% to the bit-map RAM design, respectively. In speed, the proposed design reduces an average of 77% in the wakeup latency compared to the conventional CAM-based design and an average of 33% reduction of the latency of the bit-map RAM design. For an 8-issue superscalar processor, the proposed design reduces the power consumption of the conventional wakeup logic by 80%, while simultaneously increasing the Instruction Count per nano-second (IPns) by a factor of approximately 2.5 times with a moderate area cost.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2005 Computing Frontiers Conference
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages353-360
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)1595930183, 9781595930187
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005
Event2005 Computing Frontiers Conference - Ischia, Italy
Duration: 2005 May 42005 May 6

Publication series

Name2005 Computing Frontiers Conference

Other

Other2005 Computing Frontiers Conference
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityIschia
Period05-05-0405-05-06

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

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