Multi-threaded RTOS

How Multi-threading can increase on-chip parallelism

Outline

Introduction Multi-threading models Architectures of multi-threaded processors Simultaneous multi-threading and multiprocessors Cache design Examples of Multi-threaded environments Conclusions

Introduction

Two forms of parallelism

instruction-level parallelism (ILP) thread-level parallelism (TLP)

Both identify independent instructions that can execute in parallel

Wide-issue superscalar processors exploit ILP by executing multiple instructions from a single program in a single cycle. Multiprocessors exploit TLP by executing different threads in parallel on different processors. The first multi-threaded processor approaches in the 1970s and 1980s applied multi-threading at user-thread-level to solve the memory access latency problem.

Introduction

Motivations for multi-threaded processor architecture development include chip area , cost and complexity.

Simultaneous Multi-threading (SMT), Single chip multiprocessing (CMP), SMT VLIW architecture, Multithreaded Vector (SMV) architecture DSP applications inherently benefit from the following architectural characteristics:

Parallelization at multiple levels of hierarchy: - Instruction - separate instruction memory space - Data separate date memory space - Thread- multiple functional units - Data transfer multiple wide data buses

Vertical and Horizontal Waste

Vertical waste is introduced when the processor issues no instructions in a cycle Horizontal waste when not all issue slots can be filled in a cycle.

Vertical and Horizontal Waste

Multi-threaded Models

Fine-Grain Multithreading

Only one thread issues instructions each cycle, but it can use the entire issue width of the processor. Single Dual Four Hardware context is connected directly one of each type of functional units. Less dynamic

SM: full Simultaneous Issue

SM: limited Connection

Performance

SMT VLIW Architecture

Simultaneous Vector Multi-threaded Architecture (SVMT)

SMT vs. Multiprocessing

Cache design

Examples Multi-threaded RTOS

Analog Devices VDK uClinux The RTXC Quadros RTOS RTCX/ss RTXC/ss ThreadX

Conclusions

A simultaneous multithreaded architecture is superior in performance to a multiple-issue multiprocessor (multi-issue CMP). SMT boost utilization by dynamically scheduling functional units among multiple threads. SMT also increases hardware design flexibility. Simultaneous multithreading increases the complexity of instruction scheduling. Increased parallelism offered makes multi-threading ideal for DSP applications where each application can run as a separate thread.