Welcome!
To use the personalized features of this site, please log in or register.
If you have forgotten your username or password, we can help.
|
 |
Automated Power Gating of Registers Using CoDeL and FSM Branch Prediction
| |
|
Automated Power Gating of Registers Using CoDeL and FSM Branch Prediction
Nainesh Agarwal1 and Nikitas J. Dimopoulos1 
| (1) |
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., Canada |
Abstract
In this paper, we use the CoDeL hardware design platform to analyze the potential and performance impact of power gating individual
registers. For each register, we examine the percentage of clock cycles for which they can be powered off, and the loss of
performance incurred as a result of waiting for the power to be restored. We propose a static gating method, with very low
area overhead, which uses the information available to the CoDeL compiler to predict, at compile time, when the registers
can be powered off and when they can be powered on. Static branch prediction is used in the compiler to more intelligently
traverse the finite state machine description of the circuit to discover gating opportunities. We compare this static CoDeL
based gating method to a dynamic, time-based technique. Using the DSPstone benchmark circuits for evaluation, we find that
CoDeL with backward branch prediction gives the best overall combination of gating potential and performance, resulting in
22% bit cycles saved at a performance loss of 1.3%. Compared to the dynamic time-based technique, this method gives 52% more
power gated bit cycles, without any additional performance loss.
Fulltext Preview (Small, Large)
 References secured to subscribers.
|
|
|
|
|
|