Cache optimizations for stream programs

As processor speeds continue to increase, the memory bottleneck remains a primary impediment to attaining performance. Effective use of the memory hierarchy can result in significant performance gains. This thesis focuses on a set of transformations that either reduce cache-miss rate or reduce the number of memory accesses for the class of streaming applications, which are becoming increasingly prevalent in embedded, desktop and high-performance processing. A fully automated optimization algorithm is presented that reduces the memory bottleneck for stream applications developed in the high-level stream programming language StreamIt. This thesis presents four memory optimizations: 1) cache aware fusion, which combines adjacent program components while respecting instruction and data cache constraints, 2) execution scaling, which judiciously repeats execution of program components to improve instruction and state locality, 3) scalar replacement, which converts certain data buffers into a sequence of scalar variables that can be register allocated, and 4) optimized buffer management, which reduces the overall number of memory accesses issued by the program. The cache aware fusion and execution scaling reduce the instruction and data cache-miss rates and are founded upon a simple and intuitive cache model that quantifies the temporal locality for a sequence of actor executions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• SermuliÅ Å¡, JÄ nis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Saman Amarasinghe.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33359

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33359