The potential of programmable logic in the middle: cache bleaching

Consolidating hard real-time systems onto modern multi-core Systems-on-Chip (SoC) is an open challenge. The extensive sharing of hardware resources at the memory hierarchy raises important unpredictability concerns. The problem is exacerbated as more computationally demanding workload is expected to be handled with real-time guarantees in next-generation Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). A large body of works has approached the problem by proposing novel hardware re-designs, and by proposing software-only solutions to mitigate performance interference. Strong from the observation that unpredictability arises from a lack of fine-grained control over the behavior of shared hardware components, we outline a promising new resource management approach. We demonstrate that it is possible to introduce Programmable Logic In-the-Middle (PLIM) between a traditional multi-core processor and main memory. This provides the unique capability of manipulating individual memory transactions. We propose a proof-of-concept system implementation of PLIM modules on a commercial multi-core SoC. The PLIM approach is then leveraged to solve long-standing issues with cache coloring. Thanks to PLIM, colored sparse addresses can be re-compacted in main memory. This is the base principle behind the technique we call Cache Bleaching. We evaluate our design on real applications and propose hypervisor-level adaptations to showcase the potential of the PLIM approach.Accepted manuscrip

Energy-efficient and high-performance lock speculation hardware for embedded multicore systems

Embedded systems are becoming increasingly common in everyday life and like their general-purpose counterparts, they have shifted towards shared memory multicore architectures. However, they are much more resource constrained, and as they often run on batteries, energy efficiency becomes critically important. In such systems, achieving high concurrency is a key demand for delivering satisfactory performance at low energy cost. In order to achieve this high concurrency, consistency across the shared memory hierarchy must be accomplished in a cost-effective manner in terms of performance, energy, and implementation complexity. In this article, we propose Embedded-Spec, a hardware solution for supporting transparent lock speculation, without the requirement for special supporting instructions. Using this approach, we evaluate the energy consumption and performance of a suite of benchmarks, exploring a range of contention management and retry policies. We conclude that for resource-constrained platforms, lock speculation can provide real benefits in terms of improved concurrency and energy efficiency, as long as the underlying hardware support is carefully configured.This work is supported in part by NSF under Grants CCF-0903384, CCF-0903295, CNS-1319495, and CNS-1319095 as well the Semiconductor Research Corporation under grant number 1983.001. (CCF-0903384 - NSF; CCF-0903295 - NSF; CNS-1319495 - NSF; CNS-1319095 - NSF; 1983.001 - Semiconductor Research Corporation

A Survey on Cache Management Mechanisms for Real-Time Embedded Systems

© ACM, 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Computing Surveys, {48, 2, (November 2015)} http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2830555Multicore processors are being extensively used by real-time systems, mainly because of their demand for increased computing power. However, multicore processors have shared resources that affect the predictability of real-time systems, which is the key to correctly estimate the worst-case execution time of tasks. One of the main factors for unpredictability in a multicore processor is the cache memory hierarchy. Recently, many research works have proposed different techniques to deal with caches in multicore processors in the context of real-time systems. Nevertheless, a review and categorization of these techniques is still an open topic and would be very useful for the real-time community. In this article, we present a survey of cache management techniques for real-time embedded systems, from the first studies of the field in 1990 up to the latest research published in 2014. We categorize the main research works and provide a detailed comparison in terms of similarities and differences. We also identify key challenges and discuss future research directions.King Saud University NSER

WCET-aware prefetching of unlocked instruction caches: a technique for reconciling real-time guarantees and energy efficiency

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e Sistemas, Florianópolis, 2015.A computação embarcada requer crescente vazão sob baixa potência. Ela requer um aumento de eficiência energética quando se executam programas de crescente complexidade. Muitos sistemas embarcados são também sistemas de tempo real, cuja correção temporal precisa ser garantida através de análise de escalonabilidade, a qual costuma assumir que o WCET de uma tarefa é conhecido em tempo de projeto. Como resultado da crescente complexidade do software, uma quantidade significativa de energia é gasta ao se prover instruções através da hierarquia de memória. Como a cache de instruções consome cerca de 40% da energia gasta em um processador embarcado e afeta a energia consumida em memória principal, ela se torna um relevante alvo para otimização. Entretanto, como ela afeta substancialmente o WCET, o comportamento da cache precisa ser restrito via  cache locking ou previsto via análise de WCET. Para obter eficiência energética sob restrições de tempo real, é preciso estender a consciência que o compilador tem da plataforma de hardware. Entretanto, compiladores para tempo real ignoram a energia, embora determinem rapidamente limites superiores para o WCET, enquanto compiladores para sistemas embarcados estimem com precisão a energia, mas gastem muito tempo em  profiling . Por isso, esta tese propõe um método unificado para estimar a energia gasta em memória, o qual é baseado em Interpretação Abstrata, exatamente o mesmo substrato matemático usado para a análise de WCET em caches. As estimativas mostram derivadas que são tão precisas quanto as obtidas via  profiling , mas são computadas 1000 vezes mais rápido, sendo apropriadas para induzir otimização de código através de melhoria iterativa. Como  cache locking troca eficiência energética por previsibilidade, esta tese propõe uma nova otimização de código, baseada em pré-carga por software, a qual reduz a taxa de faltas de caches de instruções e, provadamente, não aumenta o WCET. A otimização proposta é comparada com o estado-da-arte em  cache locking parcial para 37 programas do  Malardalen WCET benchmark para 36 configurações de cache e duas tecnologias distintas (2664 casos de uso). Em média, para obter uma melhoria de 68% no WCET,  cache locking parcial requer 8% mais energia. Por outro lado, a pré-carga por software diminui o consumo de energia em 11% enquanto melhora em 15% o WCET, reconciliando assim eficiência energética e garantias de tempo real.Abstract : Embedded computing requires increasing throughput at low power budgets. It asks for growing energy efficiency when executing programs of rising complexity. Many embedded systems are also real-time systems, whose temporal correctness is asserted through schedulability analysis, which often assumes that the WCET of each task is known at design-time. As a result of the growing software complexity, a significant amount of energy is spent in supplying instructions through the memory hierarchy. Since an instruction cache consumes around 40% of an embedded processor s energy and affects the energy spent in main memory, it becomes a relevant optimization target. However, since it largely impacts the WCET, cache behavior must be either constrained via cache locking or predicted by WCET analysis. To achieve energy efficiency under real-time constraints, a compiler must have extended awareness of the hardware platform. However, real-time compilers ignore energy, although they quickly determine bounds for WCET, whereas embedded compilers accurately estimate energy but require time-consuming profiling. That is why this thesis proposes a unifying method to estimate memory energy consumption that is based on Abstract Interpretation, the very same mathematical framework employed for the WCET analysis of caches. The estimates exhibit derivatives that are as accurate as those obtained by profiling, but are computed 1000 times faster, being suitable for driving code optimization through iterative improvement. Since cache locking gives up energy efficiency for predictability, this thesis proposes a novel code optimization, based on software prefetching, which reduces miss rate of unlocked instruction caches and, provenly, does not increase the WCET. The proposed optimization is compared with a state-of-the-art partial cache locking technique for the 37 programs of the Malardalen WCET benchmarks under 36 cache configurations and two distinct target technologies (2664 use cases). On average, to achieve an improvement of 68% in the WCET, partial cache locking required 8% more energy. On the other hand, software prefetching decreased the energy consumption by 11% while leading to an improvement of 15% in the WCET, thereby reconciling energy efficiency and real-time guarantees

Reducing the WCET and analysis time of systems with simple lockable instruction caches

One of the key challenges in real-time systems is the analysis of the memory hierarchy. Many Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) analysis methods supporting an instruction cache are based on iterative or convergence algorithms, which are rather slow. Our goal in this paper is to reduce the WCET analysis time on systems with a simple lockable instruction cache, focusing on the Lock-MS method. First, we propose an algorithm to obtain a structure-based representation of the Control Flow Graph (CFG). It organizes the whole WCET problem as nested subproblems, which takes advantage of common branch-and-bound algorithms of Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solvers. Second, we add support for multiple locking points per task, each one with specific cache contents, instead of a given locked content for the whole task execution. Locking points are set heuristically before outer loops. Such simple heuristics adds no complexity, and reduces the WCET by taking profit of the temporal reuse found in loops. Since loops can be processed as isolated regions, the optimal contents to lock into cache for each region can be obtained, and the WCET analysis time is further reduced. With these two improvements, our WCET analysis is around 10 times faster than other approaches. Also, our results show that the WCET is reduced, and the hit ratio achieved for the lockable instruction cache is similar to that of a real execution with an LRU instruction cache. Finally, we analyze the WCET sensitivity to compiler optimization, showing for each benchmark the right choices and pointing out that O0 is always the worst option

Performance Evaluation of Multicore Cache Locking using Multimedia Applications

Supporting real-time multimedia applications on multicore systems is a great challenge due to cache’s dynamic behavior. Studies show that cache locking may improve execution time predictability and power/performance ratio. However, entire locking at level-1 cache (CL1) may not be efficient if smaller amount of instructions/data compared to the cache size is locked. An alternative choice may be way (i.e., partial) locking. For some processors, way locking is possible only at level-2 cache (CL2). Even though both CL1 cache locking and CL2 cache locking improve predictability, it is difficult to justify the performance and power trade-off between these two cache locking mechanisms. In this work, we assess the impact of CL1 and CL2 cache locking on the performance, power consumption, and predictability of a multicore system using ISO standard H.264/AVC, MPEG4, and MPEG3 multimedia applications and FFT and DFT codes. Simulation results show that both the performance and predictability can be increased and the total power consumption can be decreased by using a cache locking mechanism added to a cache memory hierarchy. Results also show that for the applications used, CL1 cache locking outperforms CL2 cache locking

Impact of DM-LRU on WCET: A Static Analysis Approach

Cache memories in modern embedded processors are known to improve average memory access performance. Unfortunately, they are also known to represent a major source of unpredictability for hard real-time workload. One of the main limitations of typical caches is that content selection and replacement is entirely performed in hardware. As such, it is hard to control the cache behavior in software to favor caching of blocks that are known to have an impact on an application\u27s worst-case execution time (WCET). In this paper, we consider a cache replacement policy, namely DM-LRU, that allows system designers to prioritize caching of memory blocks that are known to have an important impact on an application\u27s WCET. Considering a single-core, single-level cache hierarchy, we describe an abstract interpretation-based timing analysis for DM-LRU. We implement the proposed analysis in a self-contained toolkit and study its qualitative properties on a set of representative benchmarks. Apart from being useful to compute the WCET when DM-LRU or similar policies are used, the proposed analysis can allow designers to perform WCET impact-aware selection of content to be retained in cache

A survey of techniques for reducing interference in real-time applications on multicore platforms

This survey reviews the scientific literature on techniques for reducing interference in real-time multicore systems, focusing on the approaches proposed between 2015 and 2020. It also presents proposals that use interference reduction techniques without considering the predictability issue. The survey highlights interference sources and categorizes proposals from the perspective of the shared resource. It covers techniques for reducing contentions in main memory, cache memory, a memory bus, and the integration of interference effects into schedulability analysis. Every section contains an overview of each proposal and an assessment of its advantages and disadvantages.This work was supported in part by the Comunidad de Madrid Government "Nuevas Técnicas de Desarrollo de Software de Tiempo Real Embarcado Para Plataformas. MPSoC de Próxima Generación" under Grant IND2019/TIC-17261

An Overview of Approaches Towards the Timing Analysability of Parallel Architecture

In order to meet performance/low energy/integration requirements, parallel architectures (multithreaded cores and multi-cores) are more and more considered in the design of embedded systems running critical software. The objective is to run several applications concurrently. When applications have strict real-time constraints, two questions arise: a) how can the worst-case execution time (WCET) of each application be computed while concurrent applications might interfere? b)~how can the tasks be scheduled so that they are guarantee to meet their deadlines? The second question has received much attention for several years~cite{CFHS04,DaBu11}. Proposed schemes generally assume that the first question has been solved, and in addition that they do not impact the WCETs. In effect, the first question is far from been answered even if several approaches have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we present an overview of these approaches from the point of view of static WCET analysis techniques