High-Performance low-vcc in-order core

Power density grows in new technology nodes, thus requiring Vcc to scale especially in mobile platforms where energy is critical. This paper presents a novel approach to decrease Vcc while keeping operating frequency high. Our mechanism is referred to as immediate read after write (IRAW) avoidance. We propose an implementation of the mechanism for an Intel® SilverthorneTM in-order core. Furthermore, we show that our mechanism can be adapted dynamically to provide the highest performance and lowest energy-delay product (EDP) at each Vcc level. Results show that IRAW avoidance increases operating frequency by 57% at 500mV and 99% at 400mV with negligible area and power overhead (below 1%), which translates into large speedups (48% at 500mV and 90% at 400mV) and EDP reductions (0.61 EDP at 500mV and 0.33 at 400mV).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

SDN as Active Measurement Infrastructure

Active measurements are integral to the operation and management of networks, and invaluable to supporting empirical network research. Unfortunately, it is often cost-prohibitive and logistically difficult to widely deploy measurement nodes, especially in the core. In this work, we consider the feasibility of tightly integrating measurement within the infrastructure by using Software Defined Networks (SDNs). We introduce "SDN as Active Measurement Infrastructure" (SAAMI) to enable measurements to originate from any location where SDN is deployed, removing the need for dedicated measurement nodes and increasing vantage point diversity. We implement ping and traceroute using SAAMI, as well as a proof-of-concept custom measurement protocol to demonstrate the power and ease of SAAMI's open framework. Via a large-scale measurement campaign using SDN switches as vantage points, we show that SAAMI is accurate, scalable, and extensible

Means of Payment in E-Commerce (Credit Cards and E-Money)

Once the web has spread and due to the great mass of users, firms with trade activity intesified their commercial tranzactions on-line. Thus the e-commerce implies e-payments which lead to creating e-money and implicitly some specific means of payment, all of these used with the aim of deployment and development of commercial tranzactions on-line.e-commerce, First Virtual, e-cash, Net-Cash

Control speculation for energy-efficient next-generation superscalar processors

Conventional front-end designs attempt to maximize the number of "in-flight" instructions in the pipeline. However, branch mispredictions cause the processor to fetch useless instructions that are eventually squashed, increasing front-end energy and issue queue utilization and, thus, wasting around 30 percent of the power dissipated by a processor. Furthermore, processor design trends lead to increasing clock frequencies by lengthening the pipeline, which puts more pressure on the branch prediction engine since branches take longer to be resolved. As next-generation high-performance processors become deeply pipelined, the amount of wasted energy due to misspeculated instructions will go up. The aim of this work is to reduce the energy consumption of misspeculated instructions. We propose selective throttling, which triggers different power-aware techniques (fetch throttling, decode throttling, or disabling the selection logic) depending on the branch prediction confidence level. Results show that combining fetch-bandwidth reduction along with select-logic disabling provides the best performance in terms of overall energy reduction and energy-delay product improvement (14 percent and 10 percent, respectively, for a processor with a 22-stage pipeline and 16 percent and 13 percent, respectively, for a processor with a 42-stage pipeline).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Scholarly Journals on the Net: A Reader's Assessment

published or submitted for publicatio

Emergence of immediate funds transfer as a general-purpose means of payment

Immediate funds transfer (IFT) is a highly convenient, certain, secure, and economical means of payment using bank money. IFT is not available in the U.S. banking system, except for large-value business payments, interbank transfers, and specialized financial market transactions. This article examines the successful experience with IFT in Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK and concludes that payment system governance is the principal barrier to IFT innovation in the U.S.Payment systems ; Electronic funds transfers