Static synchronization beyond VLIW

H. Dietz, T. Schwederski, M. O'Keefe, A. Zaafrani

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The authors propose a new kind of architecture, the static barrier MIMD (SBM), which can be viewed as further generalization of the parallel execution abilities of static synchronization machines. Barrier MIMDs are asynchronous multiple-instruction-stream multiple-data-stream architectures capable of parallel execution of loops, subprogram calls, and variable-execution-time instructions. However, instead of using barriers as a synchronization mechanism, the proposed barrier hardware is used to impose static timing constraints. Since the compiler can know at compile time all instructions which each processor could be executing when a particular conceptual synchronization operation is needed, it can resolve most synchronizations by using VLIW (very-long-instruction word)-like compile-time instruction scheduling, without the use of a runtime synchronization mechanism. The effect is that the proposed barrier mechanism greatly extends the generality of efficient static scheduling without adding a significant hardware cost. Both the barrier architecture and the supporting compiler technology are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages416-425
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1989
EventProceedings: Supercomputing '89 - Reno, NV, USA
Duration: Nov 13 1989Nov 17 1989

Conference

ConferenceProceedings: Supercomputing '89
CityReno, NV, USA
Period11/13/8911/17/89

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Engineering (all)

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