Automatic management of Software Programmable Memories in Many-core Architectures

作者：Shrivastava Aviral^*; Dutt Nikil; Cai Jian; Shoushtari Majid; Donyanavard Bryan; Tajik Hossein

来源：IET Computers and Digital Techniques, 2016, 10(6): 288-298.

DOI：10.1049/iet-cdt.2016.0024

• multiprocessing systems
• cache storage
• embedded systems
• storage management chips
• automatic software programmable memory management
• on-chip memories
• processor hardware
• cache memories
• data movement
• software instructions
• SPM-based processors
• embedded systems
• gaming systems
• multimedia systems
• SPM management techniques
• many-core processor architectures

Software Programmable Memories, or SPMs, are raw on-chip memories that are not implicitly managed by the processor hardware, but explicitly by software. For example, while caches fetch data from memories automatically and maintain coherence with other caches, SPMs explicitly manage data movement between memories and other SPMs through software instructions. SPMs make the design of on-chip memories simpler, more scalable, and power efficient, but also place additional burden for programming of SPM-based processors. Traditionally, SPMs have been utilised in embedded systems, especially multimedia and gaming systems, but recently research on SPM-based systems has seen increased interest as a means to solve the memory scaling challenges of many-core architectures. This study presents an overview of the state-of-the-art in SPM management techniques in many-core processors, summarises some recent research on SPM-based systems, and outlines future research directions in this field.

• 出版日期2016-11