Power efficient embedded processor IPs through application-specific tag compression in data caches

In this paper, we present a methodology for power minimization by data cache tag compression. The set of tags being accessed by the major application loops is analyzed statically during compile time and an efficient and optimal compression scheme is proposed Only a very limited number of tag bits are stored in the tag array for cache conflict identification, thus achieving a significant reduction in the number of active bitlines, sense amps, and comparator cells. The underlying hardware support for dynamically compressing the tags consists of a highly cost and power efficient programmable encoder which lies outside the cache access path, thus not affecting the processor cycle time. A detailed VLSI implementation has been performed and a number of experimental results on a set of embedded applications and numerical kernels is reported Energy dissipation decreases of up to 95% can be observed for the tag arrays, while significant energy reductions in the range of 10%-50% are observed when amortized across the overall cache subsystem.

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