Skip to main content

Dissecting the Phytium 2000+ Memory Hierarchy via Microbenchmarking

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advanced Computer Architecture (ACA 2020)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1256))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

An efficient use of the memory system on multi-cores is critical to improving data locality and achieving better program performance. But the hierarchical memory system with caches often works in a “black-box” manner, which automatically moves data across memory layers, and makes code optimization a daunting task. In this article, we dissect the memory system of the Phytium 2000+ many-core with micro-benchmarks. We measure the latency and bandwidth of moving cachelines across memory levels on a single core or two distinct cores. We design a set of micro-benchmarks by using the pointer-chasing method to measure latency, and using the chunk-accessing method to measure bandwidth. During measurement, we have to place the cacheline on the specified memory layer and set its initial consistency state. The experimental results on Phytium 2000+ provide a quantified form of its actual memory performance, and reveal undocumented performance data and micro-architectural details. To conclude, our work will provide quantitative guidelines for optimizing the Phytium 2000+ memory accesses.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. ARM, A.: NEON programmer’s guide (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Babka, V., Tůma, P.: Investigating cache parameters of x86 family processors. In: Kaeli, D., Sachs, K. (eds.) SBW 2009. LNCS, vol. 5419, pp. 77–96. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93799-9_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Fang, J., Sips, H.J., Zhang, L., Xu, C., Che, Y., Varbanescu, A.L.: Test-driving intel Xeon Phi. In: Lange, K., Murphy, J., Binder, W., Merseguer, J. (eds.) ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering. (ICPE 2014), Dublin, Ireland, 22–26 March 2014, pp. 137–148. ACM (2014). https://doi.org/10.1145/2568088.2576799

  4. Hill, M.D., Marty, M.R.: Amdahl’s law in the multicore era. IEEE Comput. 41(7), 33–38 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2008.209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. McCalpin, J.D., et al.: Memory bandwidth and machine balance in current high performance computers. IEEE Comput. Soc. Tech. Committee Comput. Archit. (TCCA) Newsl. 2(19–25) (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  6. McVoy, L.W., Staelin, C.: lmbench: portable tools for performance analysis. In: Proceedings of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference, 22–26 January 1996, San Diego, California, USA, pp. 279–294. USENIX Association (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Molka, D., Hackenberg, D., Schöne, R., Müller, M.S.: Memory performance and cache coherency effects on an intel nehalem multiprocessor system. In: PACT 2009, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques, 12–16 September 2009, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, pp. 261–270. IEEE Computer Society (2009). https://doi.org/10.1109/PACT.2009.22

  8. Phytium: Mars II - microarchitectures. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/phytium/microarchitectures/mars_ii

  9. Ramos, S., Hoefler, T.: Modeling communication in cache-coherent SMP systems: a case-study with Xeon Phi. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing, pp. 97–108 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Rutland, M.: Stale data, or how we (mis-) manage modern caches (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Zhang, C.: Mars: a 64-core ARMv8 processor. In: 2015 IEEE Hot Chips 27 Symposium (HCS), pp. 1–23. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2018YFB0204301, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant agreements No. 61972408 and 61602501.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianbin Fang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Gao, W., Fang, J., Xu, C., Huang, C. (2020). Dissecting the Phytium 2000+ Memory Hierarchy via Microbenchmarking. In: Dong, D., Gong, X., Li, C., Li, D., Wu, J. (eds) Advanced Computer Architecture. ACA 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1256. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8135-9_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8135-9_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-8134-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-8135-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics