Design and Implementation of a Chip Multiprocessor with an Efficient Multilevel Cache System

Computer designers utilize the recent huge advances in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) to get Chip Multiprocessor (CMP) by placing several processors on the same chip die. The CMP is the dominant architecture to improve the performance of the current computing systems. However, accessing a shared data by several processors is a primary challenge in CMP. The data consistency must be reached among all memory hierarchies to ensure correct behavior and higher performance. This paper, proposed a CMP with an efficient multilevel cache system, which enhances miss rate and latency (penalty) by designing and implementation of different write policies with two levels of cache. The proposed system is implemented and tested using Hardware Description Language (VHDL) on Altera’s FPGA chip. The results show that a combination of write-through without buffer for the first level and write-back for the second level offers a clear improvement on the multilevel cache system performance

Performance comparison of cache coherence protocol on multi-core architecture

Number of cores in multi-core processors is steadily increased to make it faster and more reliable. Increasing the number of cores comes with a numerous issues that need to be addressed. In this dissertation we looked at the cache coherence issue, its importance and solution. Cache coherence is important as two or more cores sharing the same data must maintain the recent updated value to avoid reading of stale value. We have made an extensive study of existing cache coherence methods, such as Snoopy coherence technique and Directory coherence technique. Snoopy coherence technique is studied with the help of MOESI coherence protocol and Directory coherence technique is observed with the help of MI, MESI TWO LEVEL, MESI THREE LEVEL, MOESI, and MOESI TOKEN coherence protocol. We have used GEM5 simulator and Splash-2 benchmark to compare their performance. For simulation a precompiled program called MemTest, Ruby random tester, and Splash-2 suite is used. It is observed that the performance is improved as we move from MI, MESI TWO LEVEL, MESI THREE LEVEL, MOESI, and MOESI TOKEN in Directory coherence technique and for Snoopy coherence we observed the performance through varying parameters like, cache size, block size and associativity. It is also observed that that adding L3 level cache the performance of MESI Three Level is improved over MESI Two Level

Adaptive memory hierarchies for next generation tiled microarchitectures

Les últimes dècades el rendiment dels processadors i de les memòries ha millorat a diferent ritme, limitant el rendiment dels processadors i creant el conegut memory gap. Sol·lucionar aquesta diferència de rendiment és un camp d'investigació d'actualitat i que requereix de noves sol·lucions. Una sol·lució a aquest problema són les memòries “cache”, que permeten reduïr l'impacte d'unes latències de memòria creixents i que conformen la jerarquia de memòria. La majoria de d'organitzacions de les “caches” estan dissenyades per a uniprocessadors o multiprcessadors tradicionals. Avui en dia, però, el creixent nombre de transistors disponible per xip ha permès l'aparició de xips multiprocessador (CMPs). Aquests xips tenen diferents propietats i limitacions i per tant requereixen de jerarquies de memòria específiques per tal de gestionar eficientment els recursos disponibles. En aquesta tesi ens hem centrat en millorar el rendiment i la eficiència energètica de la jerarquia de memòria per CMPs, des de les “caches” fins als controladors de memòria. A la primera part d'aquesta tesi, s'han estudiat organitzacions tradicionals per les “caches” com les privades o compartides i s'ha pogut constatar que, tot i que funcionen bé per a algunes aplicacions, un sistema que s'ajustés dinàmicament seria més eficient. Tècniques com el Cooperative Caching (CC) combinen els avantatges de les dues tècniques però requereixen un mecanisme centralitzat de coherència que té un consum energètic molt elevat. És per això que en aquesta tesi es proposa el Distributed Cooperative Caching (DCC), un mecanisme que proporciona coherència en CMPs i aplica el concepte del cooperative caching de forma distribuïda. Mitjançant l'ús de directoris distribuïts s'obté una sol·lució més escalable i que, a més, disposa d'un mecanisme de marcatge més flexible i eficient energèticament. A la segona part, es demostra que les aplicacions fan diferents usos de la “cache” i que si es realitza una distribució de recursos eficient es poden aprofitar els que estan infrautilitzats. Es proposa l'Elastic Cooperative Caching (ElasticCC), una organització capaç de redistribuïr la memòria “cache” dinàmicament segons els requeriments de cada aplicació. Una de les contribucions més importants d'aquesta tècnica és que la reconfiguració es decideix completament a través del maquinari i que tots els mecanismes utilitzats es basen en estructures distribuïdes, permetent una millor escalabilitat. ElasticCC no només és capaç de reparticionar les “caches” segons els requeriments de cada aplicació, sinó que, a més a més, és capaç d'adaptar-se a les diferents fases d'execució de cada una d'elles. La nostra avaluació també demostra que la reconfiguració dinàmica de l'ElasticCC és tant eficient que gairebé proporciona la mateixa taxa de fallades que una configuració amb el doble de memòria.Finalment, la tesi es centra en l'estudi del comportament de les memòries DRAM i els seus controladors en els CMPs. Es demostra que, tot i que els controladors tradicionals funcionen eficientment per uniprocessadors, en CMPs els diferents patrons d'accés obliguen a repensar com estan dissenyats aquests sistemes. S'han presentat múltiples sol·lucions per CMPs però totes elles es veuen limitades per un compromís entre el rendiment global i l'equitat en l'assignació de recursos. En aquesta tesi es proposen els Thread Row Buffers (TRBs), una zona d'emmagatenament extra a les memòries DRAM que permetria guardar files de dades específiques per a cada aplicació. Aquest mecanisme permet proporcionar un accés equitatiu a la memòria sense perjudicar el seu rendiment global. En resum, en aquesta tesi es presenten noves organitzacions per la jerarquia de memòria dels CMPs centrades en la escalabilitat i adaptativitat als requeriments de les aplicacions. Els resultats presentats demostren que les tècniques proposades proporcionen un millor rendiment i eficiència energètica que les millors tècniques existents fins a l'actualitat.Processor performance and memory performance have improved at different rates during the last decades, limiting processor performance and creating the well known "memory gap". Solving this performance difference is an important research field and new solutions must be proposed in order to have better processors in the future. Several solutions exist, such as caches, that reduce the impact of longer memory accesses and conform the system memory hierarchy. However, most of the existing memory hierarchy organizations were designed for single processors or traditional multiprocessors. Nowadays, the increasing number of available transistors has allowed the apparition of chip multiprocessors, which have different constraints and require new ad-hoc memory systems able to efficiently manage memory resources. Therefore, in this thesis we have focused on improving the performance and energy efficiency of the memory hierarchy of chip multiprocessors, ranging from caches to DRAM memories. In the first part of this thesis we have studied traditional cache organizations such as shared or private caches and we have seen that they behave well only for some applications and that an adaptive system would be desirable. State-of-the-art techniques such as Cooperative Caching (CC) take advantage of the benefits of both worlds. This technique, however, requires the usage of a centralized coherence structure and has a high energy consumption. Therefore we propose the Distributed Cooperative Caching (DCC), a mechanism to provide coherence to chip multiprocessors and apply the concept of cooperative caching in a distributed way. Through the usage of distributed directories we obtain a more scalable solution and, in addition, has a more flexible and energy-efficient tag allocation method. We also show that applications make different uses of cache and that an efficient allocation can take advantage of unused resources. We propose Elastic Cooperative Caching (ElasticCC), an adaptive cache organization able to redistribute cache resources dynamically depending on application requirements. One of the most important contributions of this technique is that adaptivity is fully managed by hardware and that all repartitioning mechanisms are based on distributed structures, allowing a better scalability. ElasticCC not only is able to repartition cache sizes to application requirements, but also is able to dynamically adapt to the different execution phases of each thread. Our experimental evaluation also has shown that the cache partitioning provided by ElasticCC is efficient and is almost able to match the off-chip miss rate of a configuration that doubles the cache space. Finally, we focus in the behavior of DRAM memories and memory controllers in chip multiprocessors. Although traditional memory schedulers work well for uniprocessors, we show that new access patterns advocate for a redesign of some parts of DRAM memories. Several organizations exist for multiprocessor DRAM schedulers, however, all of them must trade-off between memory throughput and fairness. We propose Thread Row Buffers, an extended storage area in DRAM memories able to store a data row for each thread. This mechanism enables a fair memory access scheduling without hurting memory throughput. Overall, in this thesis we present new organizations for the memory hierarchy of chip multiprocessors which focus on the scalability and of the proposed structures and adaptivity to application behavior. Results show that the presented techniques provide a better performance and energy-efficiency than existing state-of-the-art solutions

CROSS-LAYER CUSTOMIZATION FOR LOW POWER AND HIGH PERFORMANCE EMBEDDED MULTI-CORE PROCESSORS

Due to physical limitations and design difficulties, computer processor architecture has shifted to multi-core and even many-core based approaches in recent years. Such architectures provide potentials for sustainable performance scaling into future peta-scale/exa-scale computing platforms, at affordable power budget, design complexity, and verification efforts. To date, multi-core processor products have been replacing uni-core processors in almost every market segment, including embedded systems, general-purpose desktops and laptops, and super computers. However, many issues still remain with multi-core processor architectures that need to be addressed before their potentials could be fully realized. People in both academia and industry research community are still seeking proper ways to make efficient and effective use of these processors. The issues involve hardware architecture trade-offs, the system software service, the run-time management, and user application design, which demand more research effort into this field. Due to the architectural specialties with multi-core based computers, a Cross-Layer Customization framework is proposed in this work, which combines application specific information and system platform features, along with necessary operating system service support, to achieve exceptional power and performance efficiency for targeted multi-core platforms. Several topics are covered with specific optimization goals, including snoop cache coherence protocol, inter-core communication for producer-consumer applications, synchronization mechanisms, and off-chip memory bandwidth limitations. Analysis of benchmark program execution with conventional mechanisms is made to reveal the overheads in terms of power and performance. Specific customizations are proposed to eliminate such overheads with support from hardware, system software, compiler, and user applications. Experiments show significant improvement on system performance and power efficiency

Improving Energy and Area Scalability of the Cache Hierarchy in CMPs

As the core counts increase in each chip multiprocessor generation, CMPs should improve scalability in performance, area, and energy consumption to meet the demands of larger core counts. Directory-based protocols constitute the most scalable alternative. A conventional directory, however, suffers from an inefficient use of storage and energy. First, the large, non-scalable, sharer vectors consume unnecessary area and leakage, especially considering that most of the blocks tracked in a directory are cached by a single core. Second, although increasing directory size and associativity could boost system performance by reducing the coverage misses, it would come at the expense of area and energy consumption. This thesis focuses and exploits the important differences of behavior between private and shared blocks from the directory point of view. These differences claim for a separate management of both types of blocks at the directory. First, we propose the PS-Directory, a two-level directory cache that keeps the reduced number of frequently accessed shared entries in a small and fast first-level cache, namely Shared Directory Cache, and uses a larger and slower second-level Private Directory Cache to track the large amount of private blocks. Experimental results show that, compared to a conventional directory, the PS-Directory improves performance while also reducing silicon area and energy consumption. In this thesis we also show that the shared/private ratio of entries in the directory varies across applications and across different execution phases within the applications, which encourages us to propose Dynamic Way Partitioning (DWP) Directory. DWP-Directory reduces the number of ways with storage for shared blocks and it allows this storage to be powered off or on at run-time according to the dynamic requirements of the applications following a repartitioning algorithm. Results show similar performance as a traditional directory with high associativity, and similar area requirements as recent state-of-the-art schemes. In addition, DWP-Directory achieves notable static and dynamic power consumption savings. This dissertation also deals with the scalability issues in terms of power found in processor caches. A significant fraction of the total power budget is consumed by on-chip caches which are usually deployed with a high associativity degree (even L1 caches are being implemented with eight ways) to enhance the system performance. On a cache access, each way in the corresponding set is accessed in parallel, which is costly in terms of energy. This thesis presents the PS-Cache architecture, an energy-efficient cache design that reduces the number of accessed ways without hurting the performance. The PS-Cache takes advantage of the private-shared knowledge of the referenced block to reduce energy by accessing only those ways holding the kind of block looked up. Results show significant dynamic power consumption savings. Finally, we propose an energy-efficient architectural design that can be effectively applied to any kind of set-associative cache memory, not only to processor caches. The proposed approach, called the Tag Filter (TF) Architecture, filters the ways accessed in the target cache set, and just a few ways are searched in the tag and data arrays. This allows the approach to reduce the dynamic energy consumption of caches without hurting their access time. For this purpose, the proposed architecture holds the X least significant bits of each tag in a small auxiliary X-bit-wide array. These bits are used to filter the ways where the least significant bits of the tag do not match with the bits in the X-bit array. Experimental results show that this filtering mechanism achieves energy consumption in set-associative caches similar to direct mapped ones. Experimental results show that the proposals presented in this thesis offer a good tradeoff among these three major design axes.Conforme se incrementa el número de núcleos en las nuevas generaciones de multiprocesadores en chip, los CMPs deben de escalar en prestaciones, área y consumo energético para cumplir con las demandas de un número núcleos mayor. Los protocolos basados en directorio constituyen la alternativa más escalable. Un directorio convencional, no obstante, sufre de una utilización ineficiente de almacenamiento y energía. En primer lugar, los grandes y poco escalables vectores de compartidores consumen una cantidad de energía de fuga y de área innecesaria, especialmente si se tiene en consideración que la mayoría de los bloques en un directorio solo se encuentran en la cache de un único núcleo. En segundo lugar, aunque incrementar el tamaño y la asociatividad del directorio aumentaría las prestaciones del sistema, esto supondría un incremento notable en el consumo energético. Esta tesis estudia las diferencias significativas entre el comportamiento de bloques privados y compartidos en el directorio, lo que nos lleva hacia una gestión separada para cada uno de los tipos de bloque. Proponemos el PS-Directory, una cache de directorio de dos niveles que mantiene el reducido número de las entradas compartidas, que son los que se acceden con más frecuencia, en una estructura pequeña de primer nivel (concretamente, la Shared Directory Cache) y que utiliza una estructura más grande y lenta en el segundo nivel (Private Directory Cache) para poder mantener la información de los bloques privados. Los resultados experimentales muestran que, comparado con un directorio convencional, el PS-Directory consigue mejorar las prestaciones a la vez que reduce el área de silicio y el consumo energético. Ya que el ratio compartido/privado de las entradas en el directorio varia entre aplicaciones y entre las diferentes fases de ejecución dentro de las aplicaciones, proponemos el Dynamic Way Partitioning (DWP) Directory. El DWP-Directory reduce el número de vías que almacenan entradas compartidas y permite que éstas se enciendan o apaguen en tiempo de ejecución según los requisitos dinámicos de las aplicaciones según un algoritmo de reparticionado. Los resultados muestran unas prestaciones similares a un directorio tradicional de alta asociatividad y un área similar a otros esquemas recientes del estado del arte. Adicionalmente, el DWP-Directory obtiene importantes reducciones de consumo estático y dinámico. Esta disertación también se enfrenta a los problemas de escalabilidad que se pueden encontrar en las memorias cache. En un acceso a la cache, se accede a cada vía del conjunto en paralelo, siendo así un acción costosa en energía. Esta tesis presenta la arquitectura PS-Cache, un diseño energéticamente eficiente que reduce el número de vías accedidas sin perjudicar las prestaciones. La PS-Cache utiliza la información del estado privado-compartido del bloque referenciado para reducir la energía, ya que tan solo accedemos a un subconjunto de las vías que mantienen los bloques del tipo solicitado. Los resultados muestran unos importantes ahorros de energía dinámica. Finalmente, proponemos otro diseño de arquitectura energéticamente eficiente que se puede aplicar a cualquier tipo de memoria cache asociativa por conjuntos. La propuesta, la Tag Filter (TF) Architecture, filtra las vías accedidas en el conjunto de la cache, de manera que solo se mira un número reducido de vías tanto en el array de etiquetas como en el de datos. Esto permite que nuestra propuesta reduzca el consumo de energía dinámico de las caches sin perjudicar su tiempo de acceso. Los resultados experimentales muestran que este mecanismo de filtrado es capaz de obtener un consumo energético en caches asociativas por conjunto similar de las caches de mapeado directo. Los resultados experimentales muestran que las propuestas presentadas en esta tesis consiguen un buen compromiso entre estos tres importantes pilares de diseño.Conforme s'incrementen el nombre de nuclis en les noves generacions de multiprocessadors en xip, els CMPs han d'escalar en prestacions, àrea i consum energètic per complir en les demandes d'un nombre de nuclis major. El protocols basats en directori són l'alternativa més escalable. Un directori convencional, no obstant, pateix una utilització ineficient d'emmagatzematge i energia. En primer lloc, els grans i poc escalables vectors de compartidors consumeixen una quantitat d'energia estàtica i d'àrea innecessària, especialment si es considera que la majoria dels blocs en un directori només es troben en la cache d'un sol nucli. En segon lloc, tot i que incrementar la grandària i l'associativitat del directori augmentaria les prestacions del sistema, això suposaria un increment notable en el consum d'energia. Aquesta tesis estudia les diferències significatives entre el comportament de blocs privats i compartits dins del directori, la qual cosa ens guia cap a una gestió separada per a cada un dels tipus de bloc. Proposem el PS-Directory, una cache de directori de dos nivells que manté el reduït nombre de les entrades de blocs compartits, que són els que s'accedeixen amb més freqüència, en una estructura menuda de primer nivell (concretament, la Shared Directory Cache) i que empra una estructura més gran i lenta en el segon nivell (Private Directory Cache) per poder mantenir la informació dels blocs privats. Els resultats experimentals mostren que, comparat amb un directori convencional, el PS-Directory aconsegueix millorar les prestacions a la vegada que redueix l'àrea de silici i el consum energètic. Ja que la ràtio compartit/privat de les entrades en el directori varia entre aplicacions i entre les diferents fases d'execució dins de les aplicacions, proposem el Dynamic Way Partitioning (DWP) Directory. DWP-Directory redueix el nombre de vies que emmagatzemen entrades compartides i permeten que aquest s'encengui o apagui en temps d'execució segons els requeriments dinàmics de les aplicacions seguint un algoritme de reparticionat. Els resultats mostren unes prestacions similars a un directori tradicional d'alta associativitat i una àrea similar a altres esquemes recents de l'estat de l'art. Adicionalment, el DWP-Directory obté importants reduccions de consum estàtic i dinàmic. Aquesta dissertació també s'enfronta als problemes d'escalabilitat que es poden tro- bar en les memòries cache. Les caches on-chip consumeixen una part significativa del consum total del sistema. Aquestes caches implementen un alt nivell d'associativitat. En un accés a la cache, s'accedeix a cada via del conjunt en paral·lel, essent així una acció costosa en energia. Aquesta tesis presenta l'arquitectura PS-Cache, un disseny energèticament eficient que redueix el nombre de vies accedides sense perjudicar les prestacions. La PS-Cache utilitza la informació de l'estat privat-compartit del bloc referenciat per a reduir energia, ja que només accedim al subconjunt de vies que mantenen blocs del tipus sol·licitat. Els resultats mostren uns importants estalvis d'energia dinàmica. Finalment, proposem un altre disseny d'arquitectura energèticament eficient que es pot aplicar a qualsevol tipus de memòria cache associativa per conjunts. La proposta, la Tag Filter (TF) Architecture, filtra les vies accedides en el conjunt de la cache, de manera que només un reduït nombre de vies es miren tant en el array d'etiquetes com en el de dades. Això permet que la nostra proposta redueixi el consum dinàmic energètic de les caches sense perjudicar el seu temps d'accés. Els resultats experimentals mostren que aquest mecanisme de filtre és capaç d'obtenir un consum energètic en caches associatives per conjunt similar al de les caches de mapejada directa. Els resultats experimentals mostren que les propostes presentades en aquesta tesis conseguixen un bon compromís entre aquestros tres importants pilars de diseny.Valls Mompó, JJ. (2017). Improving Energy and Area Scalability of the Cache Hierarchy in CMPs [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/79551TESI

A RECONFIGURABLE AND EXTENSIBLE EXPLORATION PLATFORM FOR FUTURE HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS

Accelerator-based -or heterogeneous- computing has become increasingly important in a variety of scenarios, ranging from High-Performance Computing (HPC) to embedded systems. While most solutions use sometimes custom-made components, most of today’s systems rely on commodity highend CPUs and/or GPU devices, which deliver adequate performance while ensuring programmability, productivity, and application portability. Unfortunately, pure general-purpose hardware is affected by inherently limited power-efficiency, that is, low GFLOPS-per-Watt, now considered as a primary metric. The many-core model and architectural customization can play here a key role, as they enable unprecedented levels of power-efficiency compared to CPUs/GPUs. However, such paradigms are still immature and deeper exploration is indispensable. This dissertation investigates customizability and proposes novel solutions for heterogeneous architectures, focusing on mechanisms related to coherence and network-on-chip (NoC). First, the work presents a non-coherent scratchpad memory with a configurable bank remapping system to reduce bank conflicts. The experimental results show the benefits of both using a customizable hardware bank remapping function and non-coherent memories for some types of algorithms. Next, we demonstrate how a distributed synchronization master better suits many-cores than standard centralized solutions. This solution, inspired by the directory-based coherence mechanism, supports concurrent synchronizations without relying on memory transactions. The results collected for different NoC sizes provided indications about the area overheads incurred by our solution and demonstrated the benefits of using a dedicated hardware synchronization support. Finally, this dissertation proposes an advanced coherence subsystem, based on the sparse directory approach, with a selective coherence maintenance system which allows coherence to be deactivated for blocks that do not require it. Experimental results show that the use of a hybrid coherent and non-coherent architectural mechanism along with an extended coherence protocol can enhance performance. The above results were all collected by means of a modular and customizable heterogeneous many-core system developed to support the exploration of power-efficient high-performance computing architectures. The system is based on a NoC and a customizable GPU-like accelerator core, as well as a reconfigurable coherence subsystem, ensuring application-specific configuration capabilities. All the explored solutions were evaluated on this real heterogeneous system, which comes along with the above methodological results as part of the contribution in this dissertation. In fact, as a key benefit, the experimental platform enables users to integrate novel hardware/software solutions on a full-system scale, whereas existing platforms do not always support a comprehensive heterogeneous architecture exploration

Design of Efficient TLB-based Data Classification Mechanisms in Chip Multiprocessors

Most of the data referenced by sequential and parallel applications running in current chip multiprocessors are referenced by a single thread, i.e., private. Recent proposals leverage this observation to improve many aspects of chip multiprocessors, such as reducing coherence overhead or the access latency to distributed caches. The effectiveness of those proposals depends to a large extent on the amount of detected private data. However, the mechanisms proposed so far either do not consider either thread migration or the private use of data within different application phases, or do entail high overhead. As a result, a considerable amount of private data is not detected. In order to increase the detection of private data, this thesis proposes a TLB-based mechanism that is able to account for both thread migration and private application phases with low overhead. Classification status in the proposed TLB-based classification mechanisms is determined by the presence of the page translation stored in other core's TLBs. The classification schemes are analyzed in multilevel TLB hierarchies, for systems with both private and distributed shared last-level TLBs. This thesis introduces a page classification approach based on inspecting other core's TLBs upon every TLB miss. In particular, the proposed classification approach is based on exchange and count of tokens. Token counting on TLBs is a natural and efficient way for classifying memory pages. It does not require the use of complex and undesirable persistent requests or arbitration, since when two ormore TLBs race for accessing a page, tokens are appropriately distributed classifying the page as shared. However, TLB-based ability to classify private pages is strongly dependent on TLB size, as it relies on the presence of a page translation in the system TLBs. To overcome that, different TLB usage predictors (UP) have been proposed, which allow a page classification unaffected by TLB size. Specifically, this thesis introduces a predictor that obtains system-wide page usage information by either employing a shared last-level TLB structure (SUP) or cooperative TLBs working together (CUP).La mayor parte de los datos referenciados por aplicaciones paralelas y secuenciales que se ejecutan enCMPs actuales son referenciadas por un único hilo, es decir, son privados. Recientemente, algunas propuestas aprovechan esta observación para mejorar muchos aspectos de los CMPs, como por ejemplo reducir el sobrecoste de la coherencia o la latencia de los accesos a cachés distribuidas. La efectividad de estas propuestas depende en gran medida de la cantidad de datos que son considerados privados. Sin embargo, los mecanismos propuestos hasta la fecha no consideran la migración de hilos de ejecución ni las fases de una aplicación. Por tanto, una cantidad considerable de datos privados no se detecta apropiadamente. Con el fin de aumentar la detección de datos privados, proponemos un mecanismo basado en las TLBs, capaz de reclasificar los datos a privado, y que detecta la migración de los hilos de ejecución sin añadir complejidad al sistema. Los mecanismos de clasificación en las TLBs se han analizado en estructuras de varios niveles, incluyendo TLBs privadas y con un último nivel de TLB compartido y distribuido. Esta tesis también presenta un mecanismo de clasificación de páginas basado en la inspección de las TLBs de otros núcleos tras cada fallo de TLB. De forma particular, el mecanismo propuesto se basa en el intercambio y el cuenteo de tokens (testigos). Contar tokens en las TLBs supone una forma natural y eficiente para la clasificación de páginas de memoria. Además, evita el uso de solicitudes persistentes o arbitraje alguno, ya que si dos o más TLBs compiten para acceder a una página, los tokens se distribuyen apropiadamente y la clasifican como compartida. Sin embargo, la habilidad de los mecanismos basados en TLB para clasificar páginas privadas depende del tamaño de las TLBs. La clasificación basada en las TLBs se basa en la presencia de una traducción en las TLBs del sistema. Para evitarlo, se han propuesto diversos predictores de uso en las TLBs (UP), los cuales permiten una clasificación independiente del tamaño de las TLBs. En concreto, esta tesis presenta un sistema mediante el que se obtiene información de uso de página a nivel de sistema con la ayuda de un nivel de TLB compartida (SUP) o mediante TLBs cooperando juntas (CUP).La major part de les dades referenciades per aplicacions paral·leles i seqüencials que s'executen en CMPs actuals són referenciades per un sol fil, és a dir, són privades. Recentment, algunes propostes aprofiten aquesta observació per a millorar molts aspectes dels CMPs, com és reduir el sobrecost de la coherència o la latència d'accés a memòries cau distribuïdes. L'efectivitat d'aquestes propostes depen en gran mesura de la quantitat de dades detectades com a privades. No obstant això, els mecanismes proposats fins a la data no consideren la migració de fils d'execució ni les fases d'una aplicació. Per tant, una quantitat considerable de dades privades no es detecta apropiadament. A fi d'augmentar la detecció de dades privades, aquesta tesi proposa un mecanisme basat en les TLBs, capaç de reclassificar les dades com a privades, i que detecta la migració dels fils d'execució sense afegir complexitat al sistema. Els mecanismes de classificació en les TLBs s'han analitzat en estructures de diversos nivells, incloent-hi sistemes amb TLBs d'últimnivell compartides i distribuïdes. Aquesta tesi presenta un mecanisme de classificació de pàgines basat en inspeccionar les TLBs d'altres nuclis després de cada fallada de TLB. Concretament, el mecanisme proposat es basa en l'intercanvi i el compte de tokens. Comptar tokens en les TLBs suposa una forma natural i eficient per a la classificació de pàgines de memòria. A més, evita l'ús de sol·licituds persistents o arbitratge, ja que si dues o més TLBs competeixen per a accedir a una pàgina, els tokens es distribueixen apropiadament i la classifiquen com a compartida. No obstant això, l'habilitat dels mecanismes basats en TLB per a classificar pàgines privades depenen de la grandària de les TLBs. La classificació basada en les TLBs resta en la presència d'una traducció en les TLBs del sistema. Per a evitar-ho, s'han proposat diversos predictors d'ús en les TLBs (UP), els quals permeten una classificació independent de la grandària de les TLBs. Específicament, aquesta tesi introdueix un predictor que obté informació d'ús de la pàgina a escala de sistema mitjançant un nivell de TLB compartida (SUP) or mitjançant TLBs cooperant juntes (CUP).Esteve García, A. (2017). Design of Efficient TLB-based Data Classification Mechanisms in Chip Multiprocessors [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/86136TESI

Latency reduction techniques in chip multiprocessor cache systems

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122).Single-chip multiprocessors (CMPs) solve several bottlenecks facing chip designers today. Compared to traditional superscalars, CMPs deliver higher performance at lower power for thread-parallel workloads. In this thesis, we consider tiled CMPs, a class of CMPs where each tile contains a slice of the total on-chip L2 cache storage, and tiles are connected by an on-chip network. Two basic schemes are currently used to manage L2 slices. First, each slice can be used as a private L2 for the tile. Private L2 caches provide the lowest hit latency but reduce the total effective cache capacity because each tile creates a local copy of any block it touches. Second, all slices are aggregated to form a single large L2 shared by all tiles. A shared L2 cache increases the effective cache capacity for shared data, but incurs longer hit latencies when L2 data is on a remote tile. In practice, either private or shared works better for a given workload. We present two new policies, victim replication and victim migration, both of which combine the advantages of private and shared designs. They are variants of the shared scheme which attempt to keep copies of local L1 cache victims within the local L2 cache slice.(cont.) Hits to these replicated copies reduce the effective latency of the shared L2 cache, while retaining the benefits of a higher effective capacity for shared data. We evaluate the various schemes using full-system simulation of single-threaded, multi-threaded, and multi-programmed workloads running on an eight-processor tiled CMP. We show that both techniques achieve significant performance improvement over baseline private and shared schemes for these workloads.by Michael Zhang.Ph.D

Proximity coherence for chip-multiprocessors

Many-core architectures provide an efficient way of harnessing the growing numbers of transistors available in modern fabrication processes; however, the parallel programs run on these platforms are increasingly limited by the energy and latency costs of communication. Existing designs provide a functional communication layer but do not necessarily implement the most efficient solution for chip-multiprocessors, placing limits on the performance of these complex systems. In an era of increasingly power limited silicon design, efficiency is now a primary concern that motivates designers to look again at the challenge of cache coherence. The first step in the design process is to analyse the communication behaviour of parallel benchmark suites such as Parsec and SPLASH-2. This thesis presents work detailing the sharing patterns observed when running the full benchmarks on a simulated 32-core x86 machine. The results reveal considerable locality of shared data accesses between threads with consecutive operating system assigned thread IDs. This pattern, although of little consequence in a multi-node system, corresponds to strong physical locality of shared data between adjacent cores on a chip-multiprocessor platform. Traditional cache coherence protocols, although often used in chip-multiprocessor designs, have been developed in the context of older multi-node systems. By redesigning coherence protocols to exploit new patterns such as the physical locality of shared data, improving the efficiency of communication, specifically in chip-multiprocessors, is possible. This thesis explores such a design – Proximity Coherence – a novel scheme in which L1 load misses are optimistically forwarded to nearby caches via new dedicated links rather than always being indirected via a directory structure.EPSRC DTA research scholarshi

Design and implementation of in-network coherence

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.Title as it appears in MIT Commencement Exercises program, June 2013: Design and implementation of in-network coherence. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-104).CMOS technology scaling has enabled increasing transistor density on chip. At the same time, multi-core processors that provide increased performance, vis-a'-vis power efficiency, have become prevalent in a power constrained environment. The shared memory model is a predominant paradigm in such systems, easing programmability and increasing portability. However with memory being shared by an increasing number of cores, a scalable coherence mechanism is imperative for these systems. Snoopy coherence has been a favored coherence scheme owing to its high performance and simplicity. However there are few viable proposals to extend snoopy coherence to unordered interconnects - specifically, modular packet-switched interconnects that have emerged as a scalable solution to the communication challenges in the CMP era. This thesis proposes a distributed in-network global ordering scheme that enables snoopy coherence on unordered interconnects. The proposed scheme is realized on a two-dimensional mesh interconnection network, referred to as OMNI (Ordered Mesh Network Interconnect). OMNI is an enabling solution for the SCORPIO processor prototype developed at MIT - a 36-core chip multi-processor supporting snoopy coherence, and fabricated in a commercial 45nm technology. OMNI is shown to be effective, reducing runtime by 36% in comparison to directory and Hammer coherence protocol implementations. The OMNI network achieves an operating frequency of 833 MHz post-layout, occupies 10% of the chip area, and consumes less than 100mW of power.by Suvinay Subramanian.S.M