MINCE: Matching INstructions Using Combinational Equivalence for Extensible Processor

Designing custom-extensible instructions for Extensible Processors1 is a computationally complex task because of the large design space. The task of automatically matching candidate instructions in an application (e.g. written in a high-level language) to a pre-designed library of extensible instructions is especially challenging. Previous approaches have focused on identifying extensible instructions (e.g. through profiling), synthesizing extensible instructions, estimating expected performance gains etc. In this paper we introduce our approach of automatically matching extensible instructions as this key step is missing in automating the entire design flow of an ASIP with extensible instruction capabilities. Since matching using simulation is practically infeasible (simulation time), and traditional pattern matching approaches would not yield reliable results (ambiguity related to a functionally equivalent code that can be represented in many different ways), we adopt combinational ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: DATE
• Authors: Newton Cheung, Sri Parameswaran, Jörg Henkel, Jeremy Chan
• Keywords: Combinational Equivalence Checking, DATE 2004, Extensible Instruction, Extensible Instruction Capabilities, Hardware