FlexWatts：一种节能微处理器的功率和工作负载感知混合功率传输网络
FlexWatts: A Power- and Workload-Aware Hybrid Power Delivery Network for Energy-Efficient Microprocessors
摘要：
现代客户端处理器通常使用三种常用的功率输送网络（PDN）之一：1）主板电压调节器（MBVR），2）集成电压调节器（IVR），以及3）低压差电压调节器（LDO）。我们观察到这些PDN中的每一个的能量效率随着处理器功率而变化（例如，热设计功率（TDP）和动态功率状态）和工作负载特性。这导致了能源效率低下和性能损失，因为现代客户端处理器在广泛的功耗范围内运行，并执行各种各样的工作负载。我们提出FlexWatts，现代客户端处理器的目标是通过动态分配PDN到处理器域，在处理器的广泛的功耗和工作负载范围内提供高能效的混合自适应PDN。FlexWatts基于三个关键理念。首先，它以一种新颖的方式将IVR和LDO结合在一起，以共享多个片内和片外资源。该混合PDN被分配给具有宽功耗范围的处理器域，并且它根据功耗在两种模式之间动态切换：IVR模式和LDO模式。其次，对于所有其他处理器域，FlexWatts静态分配片外VR。第三，FlexWatts引入了一种预测算法，该算法将混合PDN切换到最有利的模式。为了评估PDN的权衡，我们开发并开源了PDNspot，这是第一个经过验证的PDN架构模型，可以对PDN指标进行定量分析。使用PDNspot，我们评估了FlexWatts在各种SPEC CPU 2006、3DMark 06和电池寿命工作负载上的性能，以及IVR（现代客户端处理器中最先进的PDN）的性能。对于4W TDP处理器，FlexWatts将SPEC CPU 2006和3DMark 06工作负载的平均性能分别提高了22%和25%。FlexWatts的成本和面积开销与IVR相当。
英文摘要：
Modern client processors typically use one of three commonly-used power delivery network (PDN): 1) motherboard voltage regulators (MBVR), 2) integrated voltage regulators (IVR), and 3) low dropout voltage regulators (LDO). We observe that the energy-efficiency of each of these PDNs varies with the processor power (e.g., thermal design power (TDP) and dynamic power-state) and workload characteristics. This leads to energy inefficiency and performance loss, as modern client processors operate across a wide spectrum of power consumption and execute a wide variety of workloads. We propose FlexWatts, a hybrid adaptive PDN for modern client processors whose goal is to provide high energy-efficiency across the processor's wide range of power consumption and workloads by dynamically allocating PDNs to processor domains. FlexWatts is based on three key ideas. First, it combines IVRs and LDOs in a novel way to share multiple on-chip and off-chip resources. This hybrid PDN is allocated for processor domains with a wide power consumption range and it dynamically switches between two modes: IVR-Mode and LDO-Mode, depending on the power consumption. Second, for all other processor domains, FlexWatts statically allocates off-chip VRs. Third, FlexWatts introduces a prediction algorithm that switches the hybrid PDN to the mode that is the most beneficial. To evaluate the tradeoffs of PDNs, we develop and open-source PDNspot, the first validated architectural PDN model that enables quantitative analysis of PDN metrics. Using PDNspot, we evaluate FlexWatts on a wide variety of SPEC CPU2006, 3DMark06, and battery life workloads against IVR, the state-of-the-art PDN in modern client processors. For a 4W TDP processor, FlexWatts improves the average performance of the SPEC CPU2006 and 3DMark06 workloads by 22% and 25%, respectively. FlexWatts has comparable cost and area overhead to IVR.
机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来，可能存在错误，请以论文正文为准。
