William Stallings Computer Organization and Architecture 8 th Edition

1. William Stallings Computer Organization and Architecture8th Edition Chapter 18 Multicore Computers

2. Hardware Performance Issues • Microprocessors have seen an exponential increase in performance • Improved organization • Increased clock frequency • Increase in Parallelism • Pipelining • Superscalar (multi-issue) • Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) • Diminishing returns • More complexity requires more logic • Increasing chip area for coordinating and signal transfer logic • Harder to design, make and debug

3. Alternative Chip Organizations http://www.cadalyst.com/files/cadalyst/nodes/2008/6351/i4.jpg

4. Intel Hardware Trends Exponential speedup trend ILP has come and gone http://smoothspan.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/clockspeeds.jpg http://www.ixbt.com/cpu/semiconductor/intel-65nm/power_density.jpg

5. Increased Complexity • Power requirements grow exponentially with chip density and clock frequency • Can use more chip area for cache • Smaller • Order of magnitude lower power requirements • By 2015 • 100 billion transistors on 300mm2 die • Cache of 100MB • 1 billion transistors for logic http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-duo-notebooks-trade-battery-life-quicker-response,1206-4.html http://techreport.com/r.x/core-i7/die-callout.jpg

6. Power and Memory Considerations We passed 50%!!! Is this a RAM or a processor? More action Less action

7. Increased Complexity • Pollack’s rule: • Performance is roughly proportional to square root of increase in complexity • Double complexity gives 40% more performance • Multicore has the potential for near-linear improvement (needs some programming effort and won’t work for all problems) • Unlikely that one core can use all of a huge cache effectively, so add PEs to make an MPSoC

8. Chip Utilization of Transistors Cache CPU

9. Software Performance Issues • Performance benefits dependent on effective exploitation of parallel resources (obviously) • Even small amounts of serial code impact performance (not so obvious) • 10% inherently serial on 8 processor system gives only 4.7 times performance • Many overheads of MPSoC: • Communication • Distribution of work • Cache coherence • Some applications effectively exploit multicore processors

10. Effective Applications for Multicore Processors • Database (e.g. Select *) • Servers handling independent transactions • Multi-threaded native applications • Lotus Domino, Siebel CRM • Multi-process applications • Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft • Java applications • Java VM is multi-threaded with scheduling and memory management (not so good at SSE ) • Sun’s Java Application Server, BEA’s Weblogic, IBM Websphere, Tomcat • Multi-instance applications • One application running multiple times

11. Multicore Organization • Main design variables: • Number of core processors on chip (dual, quad ... ) • Number of levels of cache on chip (L1, L2, L3, ...) • Amount of shared cache v.s. not shared (1MB, 4MB, ...) • The following slide has examples of each organization: • ARM11 MPCore • AMD Opteron • Intel Core Duo • Intel Core i7

12. Multicore Organization Alternatives No shared • AMD Opteron ARM11 MPCore Shared • Intel Core i7 • Intel Core Duo

13. Advantages of shared L2 Cache • Constructive interference reduces overall miss rate (A wants X then B wants X  good!) • Data shared by multiple cores not replicated at cache level (one copy of X for both A and B) • With proper frame replacement algorithms mean amount of shared cache dedicated to each core is dynamic • Threads with less locality can have more cache • Easy inter-process communication through shared memory • Cache coherency confined to small L1 • Dedicated L2 cache gives each core more rapid access • Good for threads with strong locality • Shared L3 cache may also improve performance

14. Core i7 and Duo • Let us review these two Intel architectures…

15. Individual Core Architecture • Intel Core Duo uses superscalar cores • Intel Core i7 uses simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) • Scales up number of threads supported • 4 SMT cores, each supporting 4 threads appears as 16 core (my corei7 has 2 threads per CPU) Core i7 Core 2 duo

16. Intel x86 Multicore Organization -Core Duo (1) • 2006 • Two x86 superscalar, shared L2 cache • Dedicated L1 cache per core • 32KB instruction and 32KB data • Thermal control unit per core • Manages chip heat dissipation with sensors, clock speed is throttled • Maximize performance within thermal constraints • Improved ergonomics (quiet fan) • Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controlled (APIC) • Inter-process interrupts between cores • Routes interrupts to appropriate core • Includes timer so OS can self-interrupt a core

17. Intel x86 Multicore Organization -Core Duo (2) • Power Management Logic • Monitors thermal conditions and CPU activity • Adjusts voltage (and thus power consumption) • Can switch on/off individual logic subsystems to save power • Split-bus transactions can sleep on one end • 2MB shared L2 cache • Dynamic allocation • MESI support for L1 caches • Extended to support multiple Core Duo in SMP (not SMT) • L2 data shared between local cores (fast) or external • Bus interface is FSB

18. Intel Core Duo Block Diagram

19. Intel x86 Multicore Organization -Core i7 • November 2008 • Four x86 SMT processors • Dedicated L2, shared L3 cache • Speculative pre-fetch for caches • On chip DDR3 memory controller • Three 8 byte channels (192 bits) giving 32GB/s • No front side bus (just like labs 1 & 2 with the SDRAM controller) • QuickPath Interconnect (QPI video if time allows) • Cache coherent point-to-point link • High speed communications between processor chips • 6.4G transfers per second, 16 bits per transfer • Dedicated bi-directional pairs • Total bandwidth 25.6GB/s

20. Intel Core i7 Block Diagram

21. ARM11 MPCore • “ARM vs. x86 and MicrosoftIntel started this fight by challenging ARM with its Atom processor, which is moving downmarket and towards smartphones. Apparently, the major ARM vendors are feeling the threat, are now moving upmarket and are beginning to make their run at low-end PCs and storage appliances to put the pressure back on Intel.” • http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-features/41561-the-coming-arm-vs-intel-pc-battle

22. ARM11 MPCore • Up to 4 processors each with own L1 instruction and data cache • Distributed Interrupt Controller (DIC) • Recall the APIC from Intel’s core architecture • Timer per CPU • Watchdog (feed or it barks!) • Warning alerts for software failures • Counts down from predetermined values • Issues warning at zero • CPU interface • Interrupt acknowledgement, masking and completion acknowledgement • CPU • Single ARM11 called MP11 • Vector floating-point unit (VFP) • FP co-processor • L1 cache • Snoop control unit • L1 cache coherency http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/DogObedienceTraining.jpg

23. ARM11 MPCore Block Diagram

24. ARM11 MPCore Interrupt Handling • Distributed Interrupt Controller (DIC) collates from many sources (ironically it is a centralized controller) • It provides • Masking (who can ignore an interrupt) • Prioritization (CPU A is more important than CPU B) • Distribution to target MP11 CPUs • Status tracking (of interrupts) • Software interrupt generation • Number of interrupts independent of MP11 CPU design • Memory mapped DIC control registers • Accessed by CPUs via private interface through SCU • DIC can: • Route interrupts to single or multiple CPUs • Provide inter-process communication • Thread on one CPU can cause activity by thread on another CPU

25. DIC Routing • Direct to specific CPU • To defined group of CPUs • To all CPUs • OS can generate interrupt to: • All but self • Self • Other specific CPU • Typically combined with shared memory for inter-process communication • 16 interrupt ids available for inter-process communication (per cpu)

26. Interrupt States • Inactive • Non-asserted • Completed by that CPU but pending or active in others • E.g. allgather • Pending • Asserted • Processing not started on that CPU • Active • Started on that CPU but not complete • Can be pre-empted by higher priority interrupt

27. Interrupt Sources • Inter-process Interrupts (IPI) • Private to CPU • ID0-ID15 (16 IPIs per CPU as mentioned earlier) • Software triggered • Priority depends on receiving CPU not source • Private timer and/or watchdog interrupt • ID29 and ID30 • Legacy FIQ line • Legacy FIQ pin, per CPU, bypasses interrupt distributor • Directly drives interrupts to CPU • Hardware • Triggered by programmable events on associated interrupt lines • Up to 224 lines • Start at ID32

28. ARM11 MPCore Interrupt Distributor

29. Cache Coherency • Snoop Control Unit (SCU) resolves most shared data bottleneck issues • Note: L1 cache coherency based on MESI similar to Intel’s core architecture • 3 types of SCU shared data resolution: • Direct data Intervention • Copying clean entries between L1 caches without accessing external memory or L2 • Can resolve local L1 miss from remote L1 rather than L2 • Reduces read after write from L1 to L2 • Duplicated tag RAMs • Cache tags implemented as separate block of RAM, a copy is held in the SCU. So the SCU knows when 2 CPUs have the same cache lines. • Tag RAM has same length as number of lines in cache • TAG duplicates used by SCU to check data availability before sending coherency commands • Only send to CPUs that must update coherent data cache • Less bus locking due to less communication during coherency step • Migratory lines • Allows moving dirty data between CPUs without writing to L2 and reading back from external memory(See Stallings CH 18.5 pg703)

30. Performance Effect of Multiple Cores

31. Recommended Reading • Multicore Association web site • Stallings chapter 18 • ARM web site • (if we have time) http://www.intel.com/technology/quickpath/index.htm • http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM11MPCoreMultiprocessor.html • http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/features/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=23901143