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Rethinking Control Flow in Spatial Architectures: Insights Into Control Flow Plane Design | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore

Rethinking Control Flow in Spatial Architectures: Insights Into Control Flow Plane Design


Abstract:

Spatial architecture is a high-performance paradigm that employs control flow graphs and data flow graphs as computation model, and producer/consumer models as execution ...Show More

Abstract:

Spatial architecture is a high-performance paradigm that employs control flow graphs and data flow graphs as computation model, and producer/consumer models as execution model. However, existing spatial architectures struggle with control flow handling challenges. Upon thoroughly characterizing their PE execution models, we observe that they lack autonomous, peer-to-peer, and temporally loosely-coupled control flow handling capability. This degrades its performance in intensive control programs. To tackle the existing control flow handling challenges, Marionette, a spatial architecture with an explicit-designed control flow plane, is proposed. We elaborately develop a full stack of Marionette architecture, from ISA, compiler, simulator to RTL. Marionette's flexible Control Flow Plane enables autonomous, peer-to-peer, and temporally loosely-coupled control flow management. Its Proactive PE Configuration ensures computation-overlapped and timely configuration to promote Branch Divergence handling capability. Besides, Marionette's Agile PE Assignment improves pipeline performance of imperfect loops. Compared to state-of-the-art spatial architectures, the experimental results demonstrate that Marionette outperforms Softbrain, TIA, REVEL, and RipTide by geomean 2.88\mathbf{\times}, 3.38\mathbf{\times}, 1.55\mathbf{\times}, and 2.66\mathbf{\times} in a variety of challenging intensive control programs.
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Computers ( Volume: 74, Issue: 1, January 2025)
Page(s): 185 - 199
Date of Publication: 08 October 2024

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