Efficient utilization of scratch-pad memory in embedded processor applications 论文

摘要

Efficient utilizationof on-chip memory space is extremely important in modern embedded system applications based on microprocessor cores. In additionto a data cache that interfaces with slower off-chip memory, a fast on-chip SRAM, called Scratch-Pad memory, is often used in several applications. We present a technique for efficiently exploiting onchip Scratch-Pad memory by partitioning the application's scalar and array variables into off-chip DRAM and on-chip Scratch-Pad SRAM, with the goal of minimizingthe total execution time of embedded applications. Our experiments on code kernels from typical applications show that our technique results in significant performance improvements. 1 Introduction Complex embedded system applications typically use heterogeneous chips consisting of microprocessor cores, along with on-chip memory and co-processors. Flexibility and short design time considerations drive the use of CPU cores as instantiable modules in system designs [5]. The integration...