Proto-Perf：快速精确的通用处理器原型系统性能评估方法

性能验证及评估是通用处理器设计实现过程中最重要且必须实施的关键步骤之一.高效的通用处理器原型系统性能评估方法不仅可以帮助处理器设计人员在处理器设计阶段尽早地定位性能设计缺陷,而且还可以在设计流片前验证处理器能否达到性能设计预期.然而,对处理器原型系统进行完整的性能测试需要运行较长的时间,这样巨大的时间开销导致设计人员无法及时进行性能设计分析,进而导致处理器原型系统的性能评估成为整个项目的瓶颈.提出了一种快速精确的通用处理器原型系统性能评估方法Proto-Perf.Proto-Perf性能评估方法使用动态程序分析方法和基本块聚合技术抽取测试程序的特征程序片段进行测试,显著地缩短了性能测试时间.实验结果表明,相比于完整运行SPEC CPU2006 REF数据规模测试程序获得的性能数据,使用Proto-Perf测试得到的性能数据的绝对误差平均达到1.53％,其中最高达到7.86％.并且,对于实验中的每个程序,使用Proto-Perf方法进行测试的时间都明显缩短.

Proto-Perf:Fast and accurate processor prototype performance evaluation

Performance verification and evaluation is one of the most important and necessary key steps in the design and implementation of general-purpose processors. An efficient general-purpose processor prototype system performance evaluation method can not only help processor designers locate performance design defects as early as possible in the processor design stage, but also verify whether the processor can meet the performance design expectations before the design tape. However, it takes a long time to perform a complete performance test of the processor prototype system. Such a huge time overhead makes designers unable to perform performance design analysis in time, which causes the performance evaluation of the processor prototype system to become the bottleneck of the entire project. This paper proposes a fast and accurate performance evaluation method of general-purpose processor prototype systems: Proto-Perf. The Proto-Perf performance evaluation method uses the dynamic program analysis method and the basic block aggregation technology to extract the characteristic program fragments of the test program for testing, which significantly reduces the performance test time. The experimental results show that, compared with the performance data obtained by running the SPEC CPU2006 REF data scale test program completely, the absolute error of the performance data obtained by the Proto-Perf test is 1.53% on average, and the highest is 7.86%. At the same time, for each program in the experiment, the test time using the Proto-Perf method is significantly reduced.