VEGAS: soft vector processor with scratchpad memory
VEGAS: soft vector processor with scratchpad memory
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VEGAS：带暂存存储器的软矢量处理器
DOI：
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发表时间：
2011
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通讯作者：
G. Lemieux
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作者：
C. Chou;Aaron Severance;Alexander Brant;Zhiduo Liu;S. Sant;G. Lemieux
本文提出了一种新的软向量结构VEGAS，在该结构中，向量处理器直接读写便签式存储器，而不是向量寄存器堆。暂存式存储器是一种比向量寄存器堆更有效的存储介质，允许在片上存储器中容纳多达9倍的数据元素。此外，在VEGA中使用可拆分的ALU允许在同一处理器实例中高效地处理字节、半字和字，与现有的固定宽度软矢量ALU相比，可提供高达4倍的运算。基准测试表明，新的VEGAS架构比Nios II快10倍到208倍，面延迟乘积比以前的矢量工作快1.7倍到3.1倍，实现了更高的单位面积吞吐量。要正确看待这种性能，VEGAS在整数矩阵乘法方面比领先的英特尔处理器快。为了简化编程工作并提供全面的调试支持，VEGAS使用C宏API将向量指令输出为标准的NIOS II/f定制指令。
This paper presents VEGAS, a new soft vector architecture, in which the vector processor reads and writes directly to a scratchpad memory instead of a vector register file. The scratchpad memory is a more efficient storage medium than a vector register file, allowing up to 9x more data elements to fit into on-chip memory. In addition, the use of fracturable ALUs in VEGAS allow efficient processing of bytes, halfwords and words in the same processor instance, providing up to 4x the operations compared to existing fixed-width soft vector ALUs. Benchmarks show the new VEGAS architecture is 10x to 208x faster than Nios II and has 1.7x to 3.1x better area-delay product than previous vector work, achieving much higher throughput per unit area. To put this performance in perspective, VEGAS is faster than a leading-edge Intel processor at integer matrix multiply. To ease programming effort and provide full debug support, VEGAS uses a C macro API that outputs vector instructions as standard NIOS II/f custom instructions.