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Implementation and evaluation of a microthread architecture

Published: 01 March 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Future many-core processor systems require scalable solutions that conventional architectures currently do not provide. This paper presents a novel architecture that demonstrates the required scalability. It is based on a model of computation developed in the AETHER project to provide a safe and composable approach to concurrent programming. The model supports a dynamic approach to concurrency that enables self-adaptivity in any environment so the model is quite general. It is implemented here in the instruction set of a dynamically scheduled RISC processor and many such processors form a microgrid. Binary compatibility over arbitrary clusters of such processors and an inherent scalability in both area and performance with concurrency exploited make this a very promising development for the era of many-core chips. This paper introduces the model, the processor and chip architecture and its emulation on a range of computational kernels. It also estimates the area of the structures required to support this model in silicon.

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Published In

cover image Journal of Systems Architecture: the EUROMICRO Journal
Journal of Systems Architecture: the EUROMICRO Journal  Volume 55, Issue 3
March, 2009
63 pages

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Elsevier North-Holland, Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2009

Author Tags

  1. Architecture
  2. Evaluation
  3. Implementation
  4. Microgrid
  5. Microthread
  6. SVP

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  • (2012)Collecting signatures to model latency tolerance in high-level simulations of microthreaded coresProceedings of the 2012 Workshop on Rapid Simulation and Performance Evaluation: Methods and Tools10.1145/2162131.2162132(1-8)Online publication date: 23-Jan-2012
  • (2011)Single assignment C (SAC) high productivity meets high performanceProceedings of the 4th Summer School conference on Central European Functional Programming School10.1007/978-3-642-32096-5_5(207-278)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2011
  • (2010)Concurrent non-deferred reference counting on the MicrogridProceedings of the 22nd international conference on Implementation and application of functional languages10.5555/2050135.2050147(185-202)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2010
  • (2010)Resource-agnostic programming for many-core microgridsProceedings of the 2010 conference on Parallel processing10.5555/2031978.2031994(109-116)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2010
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