A Predictive Perfomance Model for Superscalar Processors

Joseph, PJ and Vaswani, Kapil and Thazhuthaveetil, Matthew J (2006) A Predictive Perfomance Model for Superscalar Processors. In: 39th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, 2006. MICRO-39., Dec. 2006 , Orlando, FL .

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Abstract

Designing and optimizing high performance microprocessors is an increasingly difficult task due to the size and complexity of the processor design space, high cost of detailed simulation and several constraints that a processor design must satisfy. In this paper, we propose the use of empirical non-linear modeling techniques to assist processor architects in making design decisions and resolving complex trade-offs. We propose a procedure for building accurate non-linear models that consists of the following steps: (i) selection of a small set of representative design points spread across processor design space using latin hypercube sampling, (ii) obtaining performance measures at the selected design points using detailed simulation, (iii) building non-linear models for performance using the function approximation capabilities of radial basis function networks, and (iv) validating the models using an independently and randomly generated set of design points. We evaluate our model building procedure by constructing non-linear performance models for programs from the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite with a microarchitectural design space that consists of 9 key parameters. Our results show that the models, built using a relatively small number of simulations, achieve high prediction accuracy (only 2.8% error in CPI estimates on average) across a large processor design space. Our models can potentially replace detailed simulation for common tasks such as the analysis of key microarchitectural trends or searches for optimal processor design points.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
Publisher:	IEEE
Additional Information:	Copyright 2006 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
Department/Centre:	Division of Electrical Sciences > Computer Science & Automation
Date Deposited:	10 Nov 2011 05:37
Last Modified:	10 Nov 2011 05:37
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/41971

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