Abstract
Modern superscalar, multithreaded microprocessors deliver high performance but lack of predictability. Our idea is to apply control theory on such a microprocessor to improve its real-time capability. The microprocessor is fitted with a closed control loop softening the impact of latency cycles and therefore stabilizing its throughput. Using a statistical processor model we are able to guarantee a defined rate of throughput and the stability of the controller. Additionally, we show the capability of the controlled microprocessor to save power and discuss the hardware overhead introduced by our closed control loop.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brinkschulte U, Pacher M (2005) Improving the real-time behaviour of a multithreaded Java microcontroller by control theory and model based latency prediction. In: WORDS 2005, Tenth IEEE international workshop on object-oriented real-time dependable systems, Sedona, Arizona
Brinkschulte U, Pacher M (2008) A control theory approach to improve the real-time capability of multi-threaded microprocessors. In: ISORC, 2008– 11th IEEE International Symposium on Object/component/service-oriented Real-time distributed Computing, Orlando, Florida, USA, May 5–7, 2008, 399–404
Brinkschulte U, Pacher M (2009) A theoretical examination of a self-adaptation approach to improve the real-time capabilities in multi-threaded microprocessors. In: SASO 2009 – Third IEEE international conference on self-adaptive and self-organizing systems, San Francisco, California
Brinkschulte U, Ungerer T (2007) Mikrocontroller und mikroprozessoren, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin
Brinkschulte U, Lohn D, Pacher M (2009) Towards a statistical model of a microprocessor’s throughput by analyzing pipeline stalls. SEUS 2009 – 7th IFIP workshop on software technologies for future embedded and ubiquitous systems (SEUS) Newport Beach, USA, Nov 16–18, 2009
Colin A, Puaut I (2000) Worst case execution time analysis for a processor with branch prediction. Kluwer, Norwell, pp249–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008149332687
Corporation I (2002) Intel speedstepTM technology. Intel Cooperation, Technical report
Eyerman S, Eeckhout L, Karkhanis T, Smith JE (2006) A performance counter architecture for computing accurate cpi components. SIGOPS Oper Syst Rev 40(5):175–184. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1168917.1168880
Eyerman S, Eeckhout L, Karkhanis T, Smith JE (2009) A mechanistic performance model for superscalar out-of-order processors. ACM Trans Comput Syst 27(2):1–37. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1534909.1534910
Gonzalez R, Horowitz M (1996) Energy dissipation in general purpose microprocessors. IEEEJSolid-State Circ 31:1277–1284
Hughes C, Srinivasan J, Adve S (2001) Saving energy with architectural and frequency adaptations for multimedia applications. In: Proceedings of the 34th Annual International Symposium on Microarchitecture. ACM/IEEE, Austin, Texas, USA, Dec 1–5, 2001
Kalla R, Sinharoy B, Starke WJ, Floyd M (2010) Power7: Ibm’s next-generation server processor. IEEE Micro 30(2):7–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MM.2010.38
Karkhanis TS, Smith JE (2004) A first-order superscalar processor model. SIGARCH Comput Arch News 32(2):338.http://doi.acm.org/ http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1028176.1006729
Kirner R, Puschner P (2005) Classification of WCET analysis techniques. In: Proceedings of the 8th IEEE international symposium on object-oriented real-time distributed computing, pp190–199
Kreuzinger J (2001) Echtzeitfähige ereignisbehandlung mit hilfe eines mehrfädigen java-mikrocontrollers. Ph.D. thesis, Logos Verlag, Berlin
Li X, Roychoudhury A, Mitra T (2004) Modeling out-of-order processors for software timing analysis. In: RTSS ’04: Proceedings of the 25th IEEE international real-time systems symposium. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, pp92–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/REAL.2004.33
Lohn D, Pacher M, Brinkschulte U (2011) A generalized model to control the throughput in a processor for real-time applications. In: 14th IEEE international symposium on object/component/service-oriented. Real-time distributed computing–ISORC 2011, Newport Beach, USA, Mar 28–31, 2011
Lu C, Stankovic JA, Tao G, Son SH (1999) Design and evaluation of a feedback control EDF scheduling algorithm. In: Real time systems symposium (RTSS) 1999, Phoenix
Lu C, Stankovic JA, Abdelzaher TF, Tao G, Son SH, Marley M (2000) Performance specifications and metrics for adaptive real-time systems. In: Real time systems symposium (RTSS) 2000, Orlando
Pacher M, Brinkschulte U (2005) Implementing control algorithms within a multithreaded java microcontroller. In: ARCS 05, 18th international conference on architecture of computing systems, Innsbruck
Pfeffer M, Ungerer T, Uhrig S, Brinkschulte U (2002) Connecting peripherial interfaces to a multi-threaded java microcontroller. In: Workshop on java in embedded systems, ARCS 2002
Sasanka R, Hughes C, Adve S (2002) Joint local and global hardware adapations for energy. In: Proceedings of the ASPLOS-X. ACM, NewYork
Sharkey JJ, Ponomarev DK (2005) M-sim: A flexible, multithreaded architectural simulation environment. Techenical report, Department of Computer Science, State University of New York at Binghamton
Uhrig S, Liemke C, Pfeffer M, Becker J, Brinkschulte U, Ungerer T (2002) Implementing real-time scheduling within a multithreaded java microcontroller. In: 6th workshop on multithreaded execution, architecture, and compilation MTEAC-6, Proceedings of the 35th Annual International Symposium on Microarchitecture. ACM/IEEE, Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 18–22, 2002
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brinkschulte, U., Lohn, D., Pacher, M., Bauer, M. (2013). A Control Theory Approach to Improve Microprocessors for Real-Time Applications by Self-Adapting Thread Performance. In: Higuera-Toledano, M., Brinkschulte, U., Rettberg, A. (eds) Self-Organization in Embedded Real-Time Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1969-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1969-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-1968-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-1969-3
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)