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The Named-State Register File (1993)
| Venue: | AI-TR 1459, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory |
| Citations: | 8 - 2 self |
BibTeX
@TECHREPORT{Nuth93thenamed-state,
author = {Peter Robert Nuth and Peter Robert Nuth and Peter Robert Nuth},
title = {The Named-State Register File},
institution = {AI-TR 1459, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory},
year = {1993}
}
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Abstract
A register file is a critical resource of modern processors. Most hardware and software mechanisms to manage registers across procedure calls do not efficiently support multithreaded programs. To switch between parallel threads, a conventional processor must spill and reload thread contexts from registers to memory. If context switches are frequent and unpredictable, a large fraction of execution time is spent saving and restoring registers. This thesis introduces the Named-State Register File, a fine-grain, fully-associative register organization. The NSF uses hardware and software mechanisms to manage registers among many concurrent activations. The NSF enables both fast context switching and efficient sequential program performance. The NSF holds more live data than conventional register files, and requires much less spill and reload traffic to switch between concurrent active contexts. The NSF speeds execution of some sequential and parallel programs by 9% to 17% over alternative r...
Keyphrases
named-state register file software mechanism conventional processor register file live data concurrent active context efficient sequential program performance procedure call modern processor critical resource many concurrent activation large fraction reload traffic fully-associative register organization execution time parallel program fast context switching conventional register file nsf speed execution context switch parallel thread thread context
