1,279 research outputs found
The Cost of Address Translation
Modern computers are not random access machines (RAMs). They have a memory
hierarchy, multiple cores, and virtual memory. In this paper, we address the
computational cost of address translation in virtual memory. Starting point for
our work is the observation that the analysis of some simple algorithms (random
scan of an array, binary search, heapsort) in either the RAM model or the EM
model (external memory model) does not correctly predict growth rates of actual
running times. We propose the VAT model (virtual address translation) to
account for the cost of address translations and analyze the algorithms
mentioned above and others in the model. The predictions agree with the
measurements. We also analyze the VAT-cost of cache-oblivious algorithms.Comment: A extended abstract of this paper was published in the proceedings of
ALENEX13, New Orleans, US
Near-Memory Address Translation
Memory and logic integration on the same chip is becoming increasingly cost
effective, creating the opportunity to offload data-intensive functionality to
processing units placed inside memory chips. The introduction of memory-side
processing units (MPUs) into conventional systems faces virtual memory as the
first big showstopper: without efficient hardware support for address
translation MPUs have highly limited applicability. Unfortunately, conventional
translation mechanisms fall short of providing fast translations as
contemporary memories exceed the reach of TLBs, making expensive page walks
common.
In this paper, we are the first to show that the historically important
flexibility to map any virtual page to any page frame is unnecessary in today's
servers. We find that while limiting the associativity of the
virtual-to-physical mapping incurs no penalty, it can break the
translate-then-fetch serialization if combined with careful data placement in
the MPU's memory, allowing for translation and data fetch to proceed
independently and in parallel. We propose the Distributed Inverted Page Table
(DIPTA), a near-memory structure in which the smallest memory partition keeps
the translation information for its data share, ensuring that the translation
completes together with the data fetch. DIPTA completely eliminates the
performance overhead of translation, achieving speedups of up to 3.81x and
2.13x over conventional translation using 4KB and 1GB pages respectively.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
A Study on Performance and Power Efficiency of Dense Non-Volatile Caches in Multi-Core Systems
In this paper, we present a novel cache design based on Multi-Level Cell
Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (MLC STTRAM) that can dynamically adapt the set
capacity and associativity to use efficiently the full potential of MLC STTRAM.
We exploit the asymmetric nature of the MLC storage scheme to build cache lines
featuring heterogeneous performances, that is, half of the cache lines are
read-friendly, while the other is write-friendly. Furthermore, we propose to
opportunistically deactivate ways in underutilized sets to convert MLC to
Single-Level Cell (SLC) mode, which features overall better performance and
lifetime. Our ultimate goal is to build a cache architecture that combines the
capacity advantages of MLC and performance/energy advantages of SLC. Our
experiments show an improvement of 43% in total numbers of conflict misses, 27%
in memory access latency, 12% in system performance, and 26% in LLC access
energy, with a slight degradation in cache lifetime (about 7%) compared to an
SLC cache
Impact on performance and energy of the retention time and processor frequency in L1 macrocell-based data caches
[EN] Cache memories dissipate an important amount of the energy budget in current microprocessors. This is mainly due to cache cells are typically implemented with six transistors. To tackle this design concern, recent research has focused on the proposal of new cache cells. An n-bit cache cell, namely macrocell, has been proposed in a previous work. This cell combines SRAM and eDRAM technologies with the aim of reducing energy consumption while maintaining the performance. The capacitance of eDRAM cells impacts on energy consumption and performance since these cells lose their state once the retention time expires. On such a case, data must be fetched from a lower level of the memory hierarchy, so negatively impacting on performance and energy consumption. As opposite, if the capacitance is too high, energy would be wasted without bringing performance benefits. This paper identifies the optimal capacitance for a given processor frequency. To this end, the tradeoff between performance and energy consumption of a macrocell-based cache has been evaluated varying the capacitance and frequency. Experimental results show that, compared to a conventional cache, performance losses are lower than 2% and energy
savings are up to 55% for a cache with 10 fF capacitors and frequencies higher than 1 GHz. In addition, using trench capacitors, a 4-bit macrocell reduces by 29% the area of four conventional SRAM cells.This work was supported in part by Spanish CICYT under Grant TIN2009-14475-C04-01, by Consolider-Ingenio 2010 under Grant CSD2006-00046, and by European community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant 289154.Valero BresĂł, A.; Sahuquillo Borrás, J.; Lorente GarcĂ©s, VJ.; Petit MartĂ, SV.; LĂłpez RodrĂguez, PJ.; Duato MarĂn, JF. (2012). Impact on performance and energy of the retention time and processor frequency in L1 macrocell-based data caches. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems. 20(6):1108-1117. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVLSI.2011.2142202S1108111720
Buffer Controlled Cache for Low Power Multicore Processors
This thesis proposes a buffered dual access mode cache to reduce power consumption in multicore caches for embedded systems. This cache is called Buffer Controlled Cache (BCC cache). The proposed scheme introduces a pre-cache buffer to determine how to access the cache. The proposed cache shows better prediction rates and lower power consumption than conventional caches, such as Phased cache and Way-prediction cache. For single core implementation, Simplescalar and Cacti simulators have been used for these simulations using SPEC2000 benchmark programs. The experimental results show that the proposed cache improves the power consumption by 37%-42% over the conventional caches. Multi2Sim and McPAT simulators have been used for the multicore simulations using the Parsec benchmark programs. The experimental results show that the proposed cache improves the power consumption by as much as 54% over conventional caches
On Designing Multicore-aware Simulators for Biological Systems
The stochastic simulation of biological systems is an increasingly popular
technique in bioinformatics. It often is an enlightening technique, which may
however result in being computational expensive. We discuss the main
opportunities to speed it up on multi-core platforms, which pose new challenges
for parallelisation techniques. These opportunities are developed in two
general families of solutions involving both the single simulation and a bulk
of independent simulations (either replicas of derived from parameter sweep).
Proposed solutions are tested on the parallelisation of the CWC simulator
(Calculus of Wrapped Compartments) that is carried out according to proposed
solutions by way of the FastFlow programming framework making possible fast
development and efficient execution on multi-cores.Comment: 19 pages + cover pag
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