Performance-asymmetry-aware topology virtualization for defect-tolerant NoC-based many-core processors

Topology virtualization techniques are proposed for NoCbased many-core processors with core-level redundancy to isolate hardware changes caused by on-chip defective cores. Prior work focuses on homogeneous cores with symmetric performance and optimizes on-chip communication only. However, core-to-core performance asymmetry due to manufacturing process variations poses new challenges for constructing virtual topologies. Lower performance cores may scatter over a virtual topology, while operating systems typically allocate tasks to continuous cores. As a result, parallel applications are probably assigned to a region containing many slower cores that become bottlenecks. To tackle the above problem, in this paper we present a novel performance-asymmetry-aware reconfiguration algorithm Bubble-Up based on a new metric called core fragmentation factor (CFF). Bubble-Up can arrange cores with similar performance closer, yet maintaining reasonable hop distances between virtual neighbors, thus ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: DATE
• Authors: Lei Zhang 0008, Yue Yu, Jianbo Dong, Yinhe Han, Shangping Ren, Xiaowei Li
• Keywords: Cores, DATE 2010, Hardware, Lower Performance Cores, On-chip Defective Cores