[176952]
Title: Optimal Static WCET-aware Scratchpad Allocation of Program Code. <em>In Proceedings of the 46th Design Automation Conference (DAC)</em>
Written by: Heiko Falk and Jan C. Kleinsorge
in: July (2009).
Volume: Number:
on pages: 732-737
Chapter:
Editor:
Publisher:
Series: 20090730-dac-falk-kleinsorge.pdf
Address: San Francisco / USA
Edition:
ISBN: 10.1145/1629911.1630101
how published: 09-50 FaKl09 DAC
Organization:
School:
Institution:
Type:
DOI:
URL:
ARXIVID:
PMID:

Note: hfalk, ESD, WCC

Abstract: Caches are notorious for their unpredictability. It is difficult or even impossible to predict if a memory access will result in a definite cache hit or miss. This unpredictability is highly undesired especially when designing real-time systems where the worst-case execution time (WCET) is one of the key metrics. Scratchpad memories (SPMs) have proven to be a fully predictable alternative to caches. In contrast to caches, however, SPMs require dedicated compiler support.<br /> This paper presents an optimal static SPM allocation algorithm for program code. It minimizes WCETs by placing the most beneficial parts of a program's code in an SPM. Our results underline the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. For a total of 73 realistic benchmarks, we reduced WCETs on average by 7.4% up to 40%. Additionally, the run times of our ILP-based SPM allocator are negligible.