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Combining system scenarios and configurable memories to tolerate unpredictability

Published: 25 July 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Process variability and the dynamism of new applications increase the uncertainty of embedded systems and force designers to use pessimistic assumptions, which have a tremendous impact on both the performance and energy consumption of their memory organizations. In this article we introduce an experimental framework which tries to mitigate the effects of both sources of unpredictability. At compile time, an extensive profiling helps us to detect system scenarios and bounds application dynamism. At the organization level, we incorporate a heterogeneous memory architecture composed by several configurable memories. A calibration process and a runtime control system adapt the platform to the current application needs. Our approach manages to reduce significantly the energy overhead associated to both variability and application dynamism (up to 60%, according to our simulations) without compromising the timing constraints existing in our target domain of dynamic periodic multimedia applications.

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Cited By

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  • (2018)Proof-of-Concept HARPA Measurement-Based Platform Modelling FrameworkHarnessing Performance Variability in Embedded and High-performance Many/Multi-core Platforms10.1007/978-3-319-91962-1_11(237-261)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2018
  • (2013)System-level memory management based on statistical variability compensation for frame-based applicationsACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS)10.1145/2536747.253675713:1s(1-28)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2013
  • (2010)Statistical approach in a system level methodology to deal with process variationProceedings of the eighth IEEE/ACM/IFIP international conference on Hardware/software codesign and system synthesis10.1145/1878961.1878983(115-124)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2010
  • Show More Cited By

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  1. Combining system scenarios and configurable memories to tolerate unpredictability

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        cover image ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems
        ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems  Volume 13, Issue 3
        July 2008
        370 pages
        ISSN:1084-4309
        EISSN:1557-7309
        DOI:10.1145/1367045
        Issue’s Table of Contents
        Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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        Publication History

        Published: 25 July 2008
        Accepted: 01 December 2007
        Revised: 01 September 2007
        Received: 01 March 2007
        Published in TODAES Volume 13, Issue 3

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        Author Tags

        1. Process variation
        2. parametric yield
        3. variability compensation

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        • Ingenio 2010 Consolider
        • Spanish government

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        Cited By

        View all
        • (2018)Proof-of-Concept HARPA Measurement-Based Platform Modelling FrameworkHarnessing Performance Variability in Embedded and High-performance Many/Multi-core Platforms10.1007/978-3-319-91962-1_11(237-261)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2018
        • (2013)System-level memory management based on statistical variability compensation for frame-based applicationsACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS)10.1145/2536747.253675713:1s(1-28)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2013
        • (2010)Statistical approach in a system level methodology to deal with process variationProceedings of the eighth IEEE/ACM/IFIP international conference on Hardware/software codesign and system synthesis10.1145/1878961.1878983(115-124)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2010
        • (2009)System-level process variability compensation on memory organizationsProceedings of the 2009 Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference10.5555/1509633.1509703(254-259)Online publication date: 19-Jan-2009
        • (2009)System-level process variability compensation on memory organizations. On the scalability of multi-mode memories2009 Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference10.1109/ASPDAC.2009.4796489(254-259)Online publication date: Jan-2009

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