Speculative Subword Register Allocation in Embedded Processors

Abstract. Multimedia and network processing applications make extensive use of subword data. Since registers are capable of holding a full data word, when a subword variable is assigned a register only part of the register is used. We propose an instruction set extension to the ARM embedded processor which allows two data items to reside in a register as long as each of them can be stored in 16 bits. The instructions are used by the register allocator to speculatively move the value of an otherwise spilled variable into a register which has already been assigned to another variable. The move is speculative because it only succeeds if the two values (value already present in the register and the value being moved into the register) can be simultaneously held in the register using 16 bits each. When this value is reloaded for further use, an attempt is first made to retrieve the value from its speculatively assigned register. If this attempt succeeds, load from memory is avoided. On an ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: LCPC
• Authors: Bengu Li, Youtao Zhang, Rajiv Gupta
• Keywords: ARM Embedded Processor, LCPC 2004, Network Processing Applications, Register Allocator