On-chip communication and synchronization mechanisms with cache-integrated network interfaces

Per-core local (scratchpad) memories allow direct inter-core communication, with latency and energy advantages over coherent cache-based communication, especially as CMP architectures become more distributed. We have designed cache-integrated network interfaces (NIs), appropriate for scalable multicores, that combine the best of two worlds –the flexibility of caches and the efficiency of scratchpad memories: on-chip SRAM is configurably shared among caching, scratchpad, and virtualized NI functions. This paper presents our architecture, which provides local and remote scratchpad access, to either individual words or multiword blocks through RDMA copy. Furthermore, we introduce event responses, as a mechanism for software configurable synchronization primitives. We present three event response mechanisms that expose NI functionality to software, for multiword transfer initiation, memory barriers for explicitly-selected accesses of arbitrary size, and multi-party synchronization qu...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: CF
• Authors: Stamatis G. Kavadias, Manolis Katevenis, Michail Zampetakis, Dimitrios S. Nikolopoulos
• Keywords: CF 2010, Event Response, Remote Scratchpad Access, Scratchpad Memories