How to measure Multi-Instruction, Multi-Core Processor Performance using Simulation

1. How to measure Multi-Instruction, Multi-Core Processor Performance using Simulation Deepak Shankar Darryl Koivisto Mirabilis Design Inc.

2. Mirabilis Design™ • Concept Engineering software and services • Founded in 2003 & based in Sunnyvale, USA • 19 customers and 18 projects completed • Product • Two major product-lines: Architect™ and Explorer • Third Generation • Applications • High-performance systems, custom semiconductors and real-time software Comprehensive System Design Software Provider Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

3. Trends • Semiconductor companies are migrating to 2, 4, 8 multi-instruction, multi-core processors to improve performance, reduce power • Processors are migrating from SIMD to MIMD architectures • Compute system vendors are packaging multi-processor systems to improve performance, reduce cost • Scaling from single processor, single core to multi-processor, multi-core requires more inter-processor communication: Amdahl’s Law of Parallel Computing • Many benchmarks are limited to single processor, single core, there is a need for a new methodolgy Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

4. Benchmark Challenges • Different configurations lead to remarkably different performance and power metrics • Multi-Processors vs. Multi-Cores • Shared vs. Distributed Caches • Communication Bandwidth between Processors/Cores • Multi-Threaded applications make benchmarking more difficult • How are Applications partitioned: thread per node or application per node • How are Applications distributed, controlled • Speed of Processors, Memory, Communication is not scaleable in all cases Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

5. Multi-Core/Processor Benchmarking Solution • Speedup equations that take into account parallel execution • Speedup_Factor, Multi_Instr_Mhz, Multi_Core_Mhz • Modeling Platform that supports multi-instruction, multi-core topologies using routing tables • Create models for different processor memory, and connectivity configurations • Scaleable infrastructure for end-users to experiment with their specific variations • Processor Models that support published benchmarks • Key parameters, multi-instruction per cycle, shared cache • Multiple instances, scriptable pipeline • Ability to correlate baseline results to hardware tests • Interactive and graphical demonstration of the benchmark results • Hundreds of built-in statistics Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

6. Speedup Equations Multi-Instruction                    Single_Instruction_App_Time Speedup_Factor = ----------------------------                    Multi_Instruction_App_Time Multi_Instr_Mhz =  Single_Instruction_Mhz * Speedup_Factor Multi-Core                  Single_Core_App_Time                     Speedup_Factor = ---------------------                    Multi_Core_App_Time Multi_Core_Mhz  =  Single_Core_Mhz * Speedup_Factor Note: Multi_Core_App_Time assumes time to complete Single_Core_App_Time distributed among N cores plus communication time. Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

7. Performance, Power and Functional Exploration Need to design Traffic Mgr -Variable sizes and priority -Over 1000 concurrent port processing Analysis Bottlenecks Throughput Capacity Customer Requirements Discussion Golden Reference Architecture Defn. Component Size Function mapping Idea Concept Engineering and Design Optimization Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

8. VisualSim Provides • Graphical and Hierarchical Modeling based on Ptolemy Simulation Engine • Modeling blocks to quickly construct a custom/ platform model • Mixed abstractions and mixed-signal modeling • Over 2000 power, buffering and performance statistics generators built into architecture blocks • Interface and Documentation • Built-in documentation capability • Embedding models in documents for remote execution • Wizard for native code (C/C++/Java/RTL/SystemC) Modeling libraries, mixed abstraction and hierarchical development Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

9. Multi-Processor Benchmark Model Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

10. Detailed Benchmark Results Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

11. Benchmark Drives Business Use Benchmark for marketing, Product Specification and Early System Prototyping Map Requests Graphically Customer Input Customer Decision Application Driven selection Communicate Requirements Test & Diagnostics Marketing Involved Early in the Design Auto-Generate Specification Field Support Architect Knowledge Base VisualSim is the Media for Universal Communication Mirabilis Designã Inc. Confidential

12. Embedded Software Hardware Modeling Simulation Network SoC/IC/FPGA Functional, Performance vs. Power Concept Engineering