SAGE: an automatic analyzing system for a new high-performance SoC architecture--processor-in-memory

Continuous improvements in semiconductor fabrication density are supporting new classes of System-on-a-Chip (SoC) architectures that combine extensive processing logic/processor with high-density memory. Such architectures are generally called Processor-in-Memory (PIM) or Intelligent Memory (I-RAM) and can support high-performance computing by reducing the performance gap between the processor and the memory. The PIM architecture combines various processors in a single system. These processors are characterized by their computation and memory-access capabilities. Therefore, a novel strategy must be developed to identify their capabilities and dispatch the most appropriate jobs to them in order to exploit them fully. Accordingly, this study presents an automatic source-to-source parallelizing system, called statement-analysis-grouping-evaluation (SAGE), to exploit the advantages of PIM architectures. Unlike conventional iteration-based parallelizing systems, SAGE adopts statement-based analyzing approaches. This study addresses the configuration of a PIM architecture with one host processor (i.e., the main processor in state-of-the-art computer systems) and one memory processor (i.e., the computing logic integrated with the memory). The strategy of the SAGE system, in which the original program is decomposed into blocks and a feasible execution schedule is produced for the host and memory processors, is investigated as well. The experimental results for real benchmarks are also discussed.