| Abstract |
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The register .le is a power-hungry device in modern architectures. Current research on
compiler technology and computer architectures encourages the implementation of larger
devices to feed multiple data paths and to store global variables. However, low power techniques are not able to appreciably reduce power consumption in this device without a time penalty. This paper introduces an efficient hardware approach to reduce the register .le
energy consumption by turning unused registers into a low power state. Bypassing the register
fields of the fetch instruction to the decode stage allows the identification of registers
required by the current instruction (instruction predecode) and allows the control logic to
turn them back on. They are put into the low-power state after the instruction use. This
technique achieves an 85% energy reduction with no performance penalty. The simplicity
of the approach makes it an effective low-power technique for embedded processors.
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 Additional Information
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Citation:
Jose L. Ayala, Marisa Lopez-Vallejo, Alexander Veidenbaum, Carlos A. Lopez,
"Energy Aware Register File Implementation through Instruction Predecode,"
asap,
p. 86,
14th IEEE International Conference on Application-Specific Systems, Architectures and Processors (ASAP'03),
2003
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