Performance and Energy Consumption Improvements in Microprocessor Systems Utilizing a Coprocessor Data-Path

The speedups and the energy reductions achieved in a generic single-chip microprocessor system by employing a high-performance data-path are presented. The data-path acts as a coprocessor that accelerates computational intensive kernel sections thereby increasing the overall performance. The authors have previously introduced the data-path which is composed by Flexible Computational Components (FCCs). These components can realize any two-level sequence of primitive operations. The automated coprocessor synthesis method from high-level software description and its integration to a design flow for executing applications on the system is presented. The overall application speedups of eleven real-life applications, relative to the software execution on the microprocessor, are estimated using the design flow. These

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: VLSISP
• Authors: Michalis D. Galanis, Gregory Dimitroulakos, Costas E. Goutis
• Keywords: Computational Intensive Kernel, Design Flow, Generic Single-chip Microprocessor, VLSISP 2008