2. ILP Processors.ppt

Introduction to
ILP-Processors

Instruction-Level Parallel Processors
• Evolution and overview of ILP-processors
• Dependencies between instructions
• Instruction scheduling
• Preserving sequential consistency
• The speed-up potential of ILP-processing
CH04

Improve CPU performance by
• Increasing clock rates
 (CPU running at 4GHz!)
• Increasing the number of instructions to be
executed in parallel
 (executing 6 instructions at the same time)

How do we increase the number of instructions
to be executed?

VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word, 1024 bits!)

Superscalar (Sequential stream of instructions)

From sequential instructions to parallel execution
• Dependencies between instructions
• Instruction scheduling
• Preserving sequential consistency

Dependencies between instructions
Instructions often depend on each other in such a way
that a particular instruction cannot be executed until a
preceding instruction or even two or three preceding
instructions have been executed.
1. Data dependencies
2. Control dependencies
3. Resource dependencies

Data dependencies
• Read after Write
• Write after Read
• Write after Write
• Recurrences

Data dependencies in straight-line code (RAW)
• RAW dependencies
i1: load r1, a
i2: add r2, r1, r1
• flow dependencies
• true dependencies
• cannot be abandoned

Data dependencies in straight-line code (WAR)
• WAR dependencies
i1: mul r1, r2, r3
i2: add r2, r4, r5
• anti-dependencies
• false dependencies
• can be eliminated through register renaming
i1: mul r1, r2, r3
i2: add r6, r4, r5
by using compiler or ILP-processor

Data dependencies in straight-line code (WAW)
• WAW dependencies
i1: mul r1, r2, r3
i2: add r1, r4, r5
• output dependencies
• false dependencies
• can be eliminated through register renaming
i1: mul r1, r2, r3
i2: add r6, r4, r5
by using compiler or ILP-processor

Data dependencies in loops
for (int i=2; i<10; i++) {
x[i] = a*x[i-1] + b
}
cannot be executed in parallel

Data dependency graphs
i1: load r1, a
i2: load r2, b
i3: add r3, r1, r2
i4: mul r1, r2, r4
i5: div r1, r2, r4
i1 i2
i3
i4
i5
Instruction interpretation: r3(r1)+(r2) etc.
Figure 4.11 A straight-line assembly code sequence and its corresponding DDG
δt δt
δo
δa

Control dependencies
mul r1, r2, r3
jz zproc
sub r4, r7, r1
:
zproc: load r1, x
:
• actual path of execution depends on the outcome of
multiplication
• impose dependencies on the logical subsequent
instructions

Branches? Frequency and branch distance
• Expected frequency of (all) branch
general-purpose programs (non scientific): 20-30%
scientific programs: 5-10%
• Expected frequency of conditional branch
general-purpose programs: 20%
scientific programs: 5-10%
• Expected branch distance (between two branch)
general-purpose programs: every 3rd-5th instruction,
on average, to be a conditional branch
scientific programs: every 10th-20th instruction, on
average, to be a conditional branch

Impact of Branch on instruction issue

Resource dependencies
• An instruction is resource-dependent on a
previously issued instruction if it requires a
hardware resource which is still being used by a
previously issued instruction.
• e.g.
div r1, r2, r3
div r4, r2, r5

Instruction scheduling
• scheduling or arranging two or more instruction to
be executed in parallel
 Need to detect code dependency (detection)
 Need to remove false dependency (resolution)
• a means to extract parallelism
 instruction-level parallelism which is implicit, is
made explicit
• Two basic approaches
 Static: done by compiler
 Dynamic: done by processor

ILP-instruction scheduling
ILP-instruction scheduling
Detection and resolution
of dependencies
Parallel optimization
Figure 4.18 interpretation of the concept of instruction scheduling in ILP-processors

Basic approaches to ILP-instruction scheduling

Preserving sequential consistency
• care must be taken to maintain the logical integrity
of the program execution
• parallel execution vs sequential execution as far as
the logical integrity of program execution is
concerned
• e.g.
add r5, r6, r7
div r1, r2, r3
jz somewhere

Concept of sequential consistency

The speed-up potential of ILP-processing
• Parallel instruction execution may be restricted by
data, control and resource dependencies.
• Potential speed-up when parallel instruction
execution is restricted by true data and control
dependencies:
 general purpose programs: about 2
 scientific programs: about 2-4
• Why are the speed-up figures so low?
 basic block (a low-efficiency method used to extract
parallelism)

Basic Block
• is a straight-line code sequence that can only be
entered at the beginning and left at its end.
i1: calc: add r3, r1, r2
i2: sub r4, r1, r2
i3: mul r4, r3, r4
i4: jn negproc
• Basic block lengths of 3.5-6.3, with an overall
average of 4.9
(RISC: general 7.8 and scientific 31.6 )
• Conditional Branch  control dependencies

Two other methods for speed up
• Potential speed-up embodied in loops
 amount to a figure of 50 (on average speed up)
 unlimited resources (about 50 processors, and about 400
registers)
 ideal schedule
• appropriate handling of control dependencies
 amount to 10 to 100 times speed up
 assuming perfect oracles that always pick the right path for
conditional branch
  control dependencies are the real obstacle in
utilizing instruction-level parallelism!

What do we do without a perfect oracle?
• Execute all possible paths in conditional branch
 there are 2^N paths for N conditional branches
 pursuing an exponential increasing number of paths
would be an unrealistic approach.
• Make your Best Guess
 branch prediction
 pursuing both possible paths but restrict the number
of subsequent conditional branches

How close real systems can come to the upper
limits of speed-up?
• ambitious processor can expect to achieve speed-
up figures of about
 4 for general purpose programs
 10-20 for scientific programs
• an ambitious processor:
 predicts conditional branches
 has 256 integer and 256 FP register
 eliminates false data dependencies through register
renaming,
 performs a perfect memory disambiguation
 maintains a gliding instruction window of 64 items

2. ILP Processors.ppt

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