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FC-AMAT: factor-based C-AMAT analysis in memory system measurement

  • S.I. : VECOS2017
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Abstract

The “memory wall” problem has necessitated the introduction of more accurate memory metrics. C-AMAT, an extension of AMAT that considers memory access concurrency, can evaluate the performance of modern memory systems more accurately and comprehensively. However, compared to AMAT, calculating C-AMAT means additional complexity and more hardware resources, which incurs high overhead for this metric. In this paper, we propose FC-AMAT, an analysis model based on C-AMAT. We first explore the numerical relations between factors’ C-AMAT and overall C-AMAT, then try to use factor’s-first (changed factor or leading factor) C-AMAT to evaluate effects of changes applied to a memory system, which can not only reduce measurement overhead, but also guarantee acceptable evaluation accuracy through a rigorous check. Furthermore, we provide the method to determine the leading factor of a memory system. Simulations with varied configurations are conducted to study the numerical relations between factors’ C-AMAT and overall C-AMAT, as well as to evaluate the effects of FC-AMAT. Experimental results show that (1) parameters of factors’ C-AMAT have different influence degrees on overall C-AMAT, (2) the leading factor of a memory system remains unchanged across various configurations and (3) using factor’s C-AMAT as the evaluation metric reduces the hardware overhead for measurement, including detecting logic and storage cost, which demonstrates the effectiveness of FC-AMAT.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback. This work is supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.: 61433019, 61472435, 61572508 and 61672526.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer, National University of Defense Technology, No. 109 Deya Road, Kaifu District, Changsha, 410073, China

    Qi Yu, Libo Huang, Cheng Qian, Jianqiao Ma & Zhiying Wang

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  1. Qi Yu
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  2. Libo Huang
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  3. Cheng Qian
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  4. Jianqiao Ma
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  5. Zhiying Wang
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Correspondence to Libo Huang.

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Yu, Q., Huang, L., Qian, C. et al. FC-AMAT: factor-based C-AMAT analysis in memory system measurement. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 14, 143–156 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-018-0313-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-018-0313-x

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