Abstract:
Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) in chip multiprocessors are prone to within-die process variation as they span the whole chip. To tolerate variation, their voltages (Vdd) carry o...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) in chip multiprocessors are prone to within-die process variation as they span the whole chip. To tolerate variation, their voltages (Vdd) carry over-provisioned guardbands. As a result, prior work has proposed to save energy by operating at reduced Vdd while occasionally suffering and fixing errors. Unfortunately, these proposals use heuristic controller designs that provide no error bounds guarantees. In this work, we develop a scheme that dynamically minimizes the Vdd of groups of routers in a variation-prone NoC using formal control-theoretic methods. The scheme, called Sthira, saves substantial energy while guaranteeing the stability and convergence of error rates. We also enhance the scheme with a low-cost secondary network that retransmits erroneous packets for higher energy efficiency. The enhanced scheme is called Sthira+. We evaluate Sthira and Sthira+ with simulations of NoCs with 64-100 routers. In an NoC with 8 routers per Vdd domain, our schemes reduce the average energy consumptionof the NoC by 27%; in a futuristic NoC with one router per Vdd domain, Sthira+ and Sthira reduce the average energy consumption by 36% and 32%, respectively. The performance impact is negligible. These are significant savings over the state-of-the-art. We conclude that formal control is essential, and that the cheaper Sthira is more cost-effective than Sthira+.
Published in: 2017 26th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques (PACT)
Date of Conference: 09-13 September 2017
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 02 November 2017
ISBN Information: