Power and energy reduction via pipeline balancing

Abstract

Minimizing power dissipation is an important design requirement for both portable and non-portable systems. In this work, we propose an architectural solution to the power problem that retains performance while reducing power. The technique, known as Pipeline Balancing (PLB), dynamically tunes the resources of a general purpose processor to the needs of the program by monitoring performance within each program. We analyze metrics for triggering PLB, and detail instruction queue design and energy savings based on an extension of the Alpha 21264 processor. Using a detailed simulator, we present component and full chip power and energy savings for single and multi-threaded execution. Results show an issue queue and execution unit power reduction of up to 23% and 13%, respectively, with an average performance loss of 1% to 2%.