Proceedings - 2013 International Conference on Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling and Simulation, IC-SAMOS 2013
Doi
Abstract
This is the published manuscript. It was first published by Springer in the Journal of Signal Processing Systems here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11265-014-0944-6.The individual processors of a chip-multiprocessor
traditionally have rigid boundaries. Inter-core communication is
only possible via memory and control over a core’s resources is
localised. Specialisation necessary to meet today’s challenging
energy targets is typically provided through the provision of
a range of processor types and accelerators. An alternative
approach is to permit specialisation by tailoring the way a large
number of homogeneous cores are used. The approach here
is to relax processor boundaries, create a richer mix of intercore
communication mechanisms and provide finer-grain control
over, and access to, the resources of each core. We evaluate one
such design, called Loki, that aims to support specialisation in
software on a homogeneous many-core architecture. We focus
on the design of a single 8-core tile, conceived as the building
block for a larger many-core system. We explore the tile’s ability
to support a range of parallelisation opportunities and detail
the control and communication mechanisms needed to exploit
each core’s resources in a flexible manner. Performance and a
detailed breakdown of energy usage is provided for a range of
benchmarks and configurations.This work was supported by EPSRC grant EP/G033110/1