A low power design structure for multi-port register file

作者：Xiao Jianqing; Lou Mian; Zhang Xunying; Shen Xubang

来源：Journal of Central South University(Science and Technology), 2015, 46(8): 2914-2922.

DOI：10.11817/j.issn.1672-7207.2015.08.022

• Access conflict
• Design structure
• Dispatch strategy
• Multi-issue
• Processor performance
• Read and write queue
• Register files
• Write operations

To reduce the power of register file without bringing processor performance loss, a novel multi-bank register file (MBRF) based on read and write queue was presented. Several register banks were employed to partake the register file access pressure on multiple ports, a read queue and a write queue were organized for each register bank. The read and write operations were decomposed from each instruction into two queues to avoid the potential access conflicts. In addition, both combining and forwarding dispatch strategies were used to reduce the queue length, as well as read and write requires for registers. The design structure was evaluated on a four-issue superscalar simulator. The results show that the total power of register file is reduced by 52% while the processor IPC loss is just no more than 1.6%. Compared with other register files, the MBRF based on read and write queue takes on an evident advantage in multi-issue processor.

• 出版日期2015