低功耗动态可配置Cache设计

Design of Low Power Dynamically Configurable Cache

在现代的微处理器设计中,Cache(高速缓冲存储器)在决定整个微处理器的性能方面起着关键性的作用。同时,作为微处理器的关键部件,它消耗的功耗是微处理器的主要功耗之一。尤其是在嵌入式领域,研究表明Cache所消耗的能量可以占到整个微处理器的50%。因此,降低Cache的功耗可以有效地降低处理器的整体功耗。以"龙腾R2"微处理器为研究对象,以低功耗为出发点,介绍了一种动态可配置Cache的设计方法。实验表明,该低功耗可配置Cache有效的地降低了微处理器的整体功耗,且提高了性能。

On designing modern microprocessor, Cache plays a key role in determining the performance of an entire microprocessor. Meanwhile, as a critical component of a microprocessor, Caches power dissipation is one of the largest dissipation of a microprocessor. Especially in the embedded field, some researches show that Cache＇s power dissipation accounts for 50% of the total dissipation of a microprocessor. Therefore, the total dissipation can be largely lowered by reducing Cache＇s dissipation. Studying the ＂ longtium R2＂ Microprocessor, this paper introduces a novel way of designing dynamically configurable Cache, which can reduce power dissipation. Experiments illustrate that dynamically eonfigurable CACHE effectively reduces the total dissipation of the whole microprocessor and improves the performance.