Lesson 4--Datapaths Flashcards
What is a datapath with respect to VLIW
the collection of its execution units, which performs data transformation
In these two RSA, all operands reside in memory
CISC and DSP
Where do operands reside in VLIW and RISC
Operands are in the registers before any work is done.
True or False: 16 bit buses are much more efficient than 32 bit buses
True
ISA minimum requirements
- -Minimum commands for accessing memory load, store
- -Minimum commands to perform arithmetic functions subtraction
- -Minimum commands for control functions less than zero, equals zero, branch unconditional
Choosing Operations tradeoffs
- -Efficiency
- -Performance
- -Complexity
- -Design
- -Silicon cost
Other architectures
SIMD
MIMD
microSIMD
True or False: VLIW is more efficient than microSIMD for a media processor
False
True or False: For the same number of addressible registers, microSIMD holds more multimedia data than superscalar or VLIW.
True
True or False: microSIMD supports data parallelism, but at a much higher complexity of register ports
False
Min instructions for accessing memory
- -Load a value from mem into register
- -Store a value from a register into mem
Min instructions set to perform arithmetic functions of a processor:
Subtract
Min instructions set to perform control functions of a processor:
- -Result is zero
- -Result is less than zero (no need for greater than zero)
- -Branch unconditional (goto)
VLIW datapath
Collection of its execution units, which performs data transformation
CISC and DSP
All operands reside in memory
VLIW and RISC
Operands are in the registers before any work is done.
True or False: 16 bit buses are much more efficient than 32 bit buses
TRUE
Choosing Operation Repertoire tradeoffs
- -Efficiency
- -Performance
- -Complexity
- -Design
- -Silicon cost
Other architectures
- -SIMD
- -MIMD
- -microSIMD
True or False: VLIW is more efficient than microSIMD for a media processor
False
True or False: For the same number of addressible registers, microSIMD holds more multimedia data than superscalar or VLIW.
True
True or False: microSIMD supports data parallelism, but at a much higher complexity of register ports
False
Min instructions for accessing memory
- -Load a value from mem into register
- -Store a value from a register into mem
Min instructions set to perform arithmetic functions of a processor:
Subtract
Min instructions set to perform control functions of a processor:
- -Result is zero
- -Result is less than zero (no need for greater than zero)
- -Branch unconditional (goto)
What is the controller’s role in the Datapath
The controller makes sure
the data is latched properly into the buffer,
coordinates ALU operations, IO devices, and Memory
and checks for hazards.
CISC and DSP all the operands reside in memory. So there must be ______ to______operations and complex addressing modes.
Memory to memory
Accumulators are target registers of the ALU
This means the compiler is forced to make binding choices and optimizations too early to reduce the memory traffic.
True or false: VLIW and RISC use lost of registers
True
True or false: VLIW and RISC compiler does not need to be very aggressive with register allocation
False
True or false: VLIW and RISC compiler must decouple scheduling and register allocation. So first scheduling is performed, the register allocation is done.
True
Datapath Operations Cycles
The 32 bit processors take way more cycles than the 16 bit versions because the 32 bit operations break down the operations into 16 bit operations and use the carry bit to extend the size.
True or False: Datapath Operations Cycles that use 16 bit buses operate much less efficiently than 32 bit buses.
False
Datapath Width
The width of the datapath equals the width of the registers that hold int and float.
Datapath Width
The width of the datapath equals the width of the registers that hold int and float.
False
True or False: The initial versions for ARM supported floating point operations, was done through a software library.
True
True or False: The initial versions for ARM processors were extremely efficient, but the time for floating point operations was 100s of clock cycles
False, there was usually two
True or False: CISC and RISC usually have only one datapaths, each the width of the datapath.
Narrower
With CISC and RISC, the integer datapath is narrower or wider than the floating point one?
DSPs datapaths
These are likely to be 40 bits or 56 bits, these are ADC widths
8 - 32
VLIW Datapath Widths had __ to __ bit independent datapaths
True
True or False: VLIW Datapath Widths could be reconfigured to support floating point operations
Operation Repertoire
Choosing which operations to include in the ISA is difficult
Additional Operation Repertoire tradeoffs
–application analysis
–execution frequency
–implementation complexity
all must be considered for this operation
The characteristics of application domain are:
- -Simple integer and compare operations for the basic units of execution of any program.
- -datapaths are extremely important.
- -In CISC Carry, Overflow, and other flags are set by the arithmetic operations