A way cache locking scheme supported by knowledge based smart preload effective for low-power multicore electronics

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Asaduzzaman, Abu
Gunasekara, Govipalagodage H.
Advisors
Issue Date
2012-12
Type
Article
Keywords
Cache locking , Low-power cache memory subsystem design , Low-power high-performance systems , Low-power portable medical devices , Multicore computer architecture
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Asaduzzaman, A., & Gunasekara, G. H. (2012). A way cache locking scheme supported by knowledge based smart preload effective for low-power multicore electronics. Journal of Low Power Electronics, 8(5), 552-564. doi:10.1166/jolpe.2012.1215
Abstract

Adopting multicore architecture in consumer and bio-inspired electronics is promising to fulfill the growing need of high-performance. However, multi-level caches in multicore architecture require significant amount of power to be operated. In such a multi-level cache system, parallel thread execution becomes extremely difficult, which may also cause performance detraction. Studies suggest that cache locking has potential to decrease total power consumption and increase performance by reducing cache misses. In this work, a promising cache locking strategy for multicore electronics is proposed. According to this strategy, preselected blocks are preloaded knowingly at shared level cache and way cache locking is performed to lock all or some of those blocks. We model two multicore architectures: one Xeon-like quad-core system where CL2 is shared and one Opteron-like quad-core system where CL3 is shared. Popular MPEG-4, MPEG-3, JPEG, GIF, and FFT applications are used to run the simulation programs. Experimental results suggest that the proposed cache locking strategy is beneficial for designing low-power cache memory subsystem for multicore devices. Using proposed cache locking scheme, power consumption per task and mean delay per task are decreased by 41.12% and 35.51%, respectively, for MPEG-4 workload.

Table of Contents
Description
Click on the DOI link to access the article (may not be free).
Publisher
American Scientific Publishers
Journal
Book Title
Series
Journal of Low Power Electronics
v.8 no.5
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
1546-1998
EISSN