Hardware-Based Profiling: An Effective Technique for Profile-Driven Optimization (1996)
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BibTeX
@MISC{Conte96hardware-basedprofiling:,
author = {Thomas M. Conte and Burzin Patel and Kishore N. Menezes and J. Stan Cox},
title = {Hardware-Based Profiling: An Effective Technique for Profile-Driven Optimization},
year = {1996}
}
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Abstract
Profile-based optimizations can be used for instruction scheduling, loop scheduling, data preloading, function in-lining, and instruction cache performance enhancement. However, these techniques have not been embraced by software vendors because programs instrumented for profiling run significantly slower, an awkward compile-run-recompile sequence is required, and a test input suite must be collected and validated for each program. This paper introduces hardware-based profiling that uses traditional branch handling hardware to generate profile information in real time. Techniques are presented for both one-level and two-level branch hardware organizations. The approach produces high accuracy with small slowdown in execution (0.4%--4.6%). This allows a program to be profiled while it is used, eliminating the need for a test input suite. With contemporary processors driven increasingly by compiler support, hardware-based profiling is important for high-performance systems. Keywords: Bran...
