Thermometer
S.P. Song, Tanvir Ahmed Khan, Sara Mahdizadeh Shahri, Akshitha Sriraman, Niranjan Soundararajan, Sreenivas Subramoney, Daniel A. Jiménez, Heiner Litz, Baris Kasikci
Abstract
Modern processors employ a decoupled frontend with Fetch Directed Instruction Prefetching (FDIP) to avoid frontend stalls in data center applications. However, the large branch footprint of data center applications precipitates frequent Branch Target Buffer (BTB) misses that prohibit FDIP from eliminating more than 40% of all frontend stalls. We find that the state-of-the-art BTB optimization techniques (e.g., BTB prefetching and replacement mechanisms) cannot eliminate these misses due to their inadequate understanding of branch reuse behavior in data center applications.
Topics & Concepts
Computer scienceFetchReuseData centerFootprintEmbedded systemOperating systemParallel computingReal-time computingComputer hardwareComputer networkEngineeringPaleontologyBiologyOceanographyWaste managementGeologyParallel Computing and Optimization TechniquesCloud Computing and Resource ManagementAdvanced Data Storage Technologies