1.6 Improving memory performance  (Page 5/5)

In this example, assume that it take 50 cycles to access memory. When the fetch/ decode puts the first load into the instruction reorder buffer (IRB), the load starts on the next cycle and then is suspended in the execute phase. However, the rest of the instructions are in the IRB. The INCR R1 must wait for the load and the STORE must also wait. However, by using a rename register, the INCR R5, COMPARE, and BLT can all be computed, and the fetch/decode goes up to the top of the loop and sends another load into the IRB for the next memory location that will have to wait. This looping continues until about 10 iterations of the loop are in the IRB. Then the first load actually shows up from memory and the INCR R1 and STORE from the first iteration begins executing. Of course the store takes a while, but about that time the second load finishes, so there is more work to do and so on…

Like many aspects of computing, the post-RISC architecture, with its out-of-order and speculative execution, optimizes memory references. The post-RISC processor dynamically unrolls loops at execution time to compensate for memory subsystem delay. Assuming a pipelined multibanked memory system that can have multiple memory operations started before any complete (the HP PA-8000 can have 10 off- chip memory operations in flight at one time), the processor continues to dispatch memory operations until those operations begin to complete.

Unlike a vector processor or a prefetch instruction, the post-RISC processor does not need to anticipate the precise pattern of memory references so it can carefully control the memory subsystem. As a result, the post-RISC processor can achieve peak performance in a far-wider range of code sequences than either vector processors or in-order RISC processors with prefetch capability.

This implicit tolerance to memory latency makes the post-RISC processors ideal for use in the scalable shared-memory processors of the future, where the memory hierarchy will become even more complex than current processors with three levels of cache and a main memory.

Unfortunately, the one code segment that doesn’t benefit significantly from the post-RISC architecture is the linked-list traversal. This is because the next address is never known until the previous load is completed so all loads are fundamentally serialized.

Dynamic ram technology trends

Much of the techniques in this section have focused on how to deal with the imperfections of the dynamic RAM chip (although when your clock rate hits 300–600 MHz or 3–2 ns, even SRAM starts to look pretty slow). It’s clear that the demand for more and more RAM will continue to increase, and gigabits and more DRAM will fit on a single chip. Because of this, significant work is underway to make new super-DRAMs faster and more tuned to the extremely fast processors of the present and the future. Some of the technologies are relatively straightforward, and others require a major redesign of the way that processors and memories are manufactured.

Some DRAM improvements include:

• Fast page mode DRAM
• Extended data out RAM (EDO RAM)
• Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM)
• RAMBUS
• Cached DRAM (CDRAM)

Fast page mode DRAM saves time by allowing a mode in which the entire address doesn’t have to be re-clocked into the chip for each memory operation. Instead, there is an assumption that the memory will be accessed sequentially (as in a cache-line fill), and only the low-order bits of the address are clocked in for successive reads or writes.

EDO RAM is a modification to output buffering on page mode RAM that allows it to operate roughly twice as quickly for operations other than refresh.

Synchronous DRAM is synchronized using an external clock that allows the cache and the DRAM to coordinate their operations. Also, SDRAM can pipeline the retrieval of multiple memory bits to improve overall throughput.

RAMBUS is a proprietary technology capable of 500 MB/sec data transfer. RAMBUS uses significant logic within the chip and operates at higher power levels than typical DRAM.

Cached DRAM combines a SRAM cache on the same chip as the DRAM. This tightly couples the SRAM and DRAM and provides performance similar to SRAM devices with all the limitations of any cache architecture. One advantage of the CDRAM approach is that the amount of cache is increased as the amount of DRAM is increased. Also when dealing with memory systems with a large number of interleaves, each interleave has its own SRAM to reduce latency, assuming the data requested was in the SRAM.

An even more advanced approach is to integrate the processor, SRAM, and DRAM onto a single chip clocked at say 5 GHz, containing 128 MB of data. Understandably, there is a wide range of technical problems to solve before this type of component is widely available for $200 — but it’s not out of the question. The manufacturing processes for DRAM and processors are already beginning to converge in some ways (RAMBUS). The biggest performance problem when we have this type of system will be, “What to do if you need 160 MB?”