COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND DESIGN

RISC-V
Edition
The Hardware/Software Interface

Chapter 1-2
Performance Evaluation
Understanding Performance
◼ Algorithm
◼ Determines number of operations executed
◼ Programming language, compiler, architecture
◼ Determine number of machine instructions executed
per operation
◼ Processor and memory system
◼ Determine how fast instructions are executed
◼ I/O system (including OS)
◼ Determines how fast I/O operations are executed

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 2

 §1.6 Performance
Defining Performance
◼ Which airplane has the best performance?

Boeing 777 Boeing 777

Boeing 747 Boeing 747

BAC/Sud BAC/Sud
Concorde Concorde
Douglas Douglas DC-
DC-8-50 8-50

0 100 200 300 400 500 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

Passenger Capacity Cruising Range (miles)

Boeing 777 Boeing 777

Boeing 747 Boeing 747

BAC/Sud BAC/Sud
Concorde Concorde
Douglas Douglas DC-
DC-8-50 8-50

0 500 1000 1500 0 100000 200000 300000 400000

Cruising Speed (mph) Passengers x mph

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 3

Response Time and Throughput
◼ Response time
◼ How long it takes to do a task
◼ Throughput
◼ Total work done per unit time
◼ e.g., tasks/transactions/… per hour
◼ How are response time and throughput affected
by
◼ Replacing the processor with a faster version?
◼ Adding more processors?
◼ We’ll focus on response time for now…

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 4

Relative Performance
◼ Define Performance = 1/Execution Time
◼ “X is n time faster than Y”
Performanc e X Performanc e Y
= Execution time Y Execution time X = n

◼ Example: time taken to run a program

◼ 10s on A, 15s on B
◼ Execution TimeB / Execution TimeA
= 15s / 10s = 1.5
◼ So A is 1.5 times faster than B
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 5
Measuring Execution Time
◼ Elapsed time
◼ Total response time, including all aspects
◼ Processing, I/O, OS overhead, idle time
◼ Determines system performance
◼ CPU time
◼ Time spent processing a given job
◼ Discounts I/O time, other jobs’ shares
◼ Comprises user CPU time and system CPU
time
◼ Different programs are affected differently by
CPU and system performance
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 6
CPU Clocking
◼ Operation of digital hardware governed by a
constant-rate clock
Clock period

Clock (cycles)

Data transfer
and computation
Update state

◼ Clock period: duration of a clock cycle

◼ e.g., 250ps = 0.25ns = 250×10–12s
◼ Clock frequency (rate): cycles per second
◼ e.g., 4.0GHz = 4000MHz = 4.0×109Hz
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 7
CPU Time
CPU Time = CPU Clock Cycles  Clock Cycle Time
CPU Clock Cycles
=
Clock Rate
◼ Performance improved by
◼ Reducing number of clock cycles
◼ Increasing clock rate
◼ Hardware designer must often trade off clock
rate against cycle count

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 8

CPU Time Example
◼ Computer A: 2GHz clock, 10s CPU time
◼ Designing Computer B
◼ Aim for 6s CPU time
◼ Can do faster clock, but causes 1.2 × clock cycles
◼ How fast must Computer B clock be?
Clock Cycles B 1.2  Clock Cycles A
Clock Rate B = =
CPU Time B 6s
Clock Cycles A = CPU Time A  Clock Rate A
= 10s  2GHz = 20  10 9
1.2  20  10 9 24  10 9
Clock Rate B = = = 4GHz
6s 6s
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 9
Instruction Count and CPI
Clock Cycles = Instruction Count  Cycles per Instruction
CPU Time = Instruction Count  CPI  Clock Cycle Time
Instruction Count  CPI
=
Clock Rate
◼ Instruction Count for a program
◼ Determined by program, ISA and compiler
◼ Average cycles per instruction
◼ Determined by CPU hardware
◼ If different instructions have different CPI
◼ Average CPI affected by instruction mix

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 10

CPI Example
◼ Computer A: Cycle Time = 250ps, CPI = 2.0
◼ Computer B: Cycle Time = 500ps, CPI = 1.2
◼ Same ISA
◼ Which is faster, and by how much?
CPU Time = Instruction Count  CPI  Cycle Time
A A A
= I  2.0  250ps = I  500ps A is faster…
CPU Time = Instruction Count  CPI  Cycle Time
B B B
= I  1.2  500ps = I  600ps

B = I  600ps = 1.2
CPU Time
…by this much
CPU Time I  500ps
A
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 11
 CPI in More Detail
◼ If different instruction classes take different
numbers of cycles
n
Clock Cycles =  (CPIi  Instructio n Count i )
i=1

◼ Weighted average CPI

Clock Cycles n
 Instructio n Count i 
CPI = =   CPIi  
Instructio n Count i=1  Instructio n Count 

Relative frequency

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 12

CPI Example
◼ Alternative compiled code sequences using
instructions in classes A, B, C

Class A B C
CPI for class 1 2 3
IC in sequence 1 2 1 2
IC in sequence 2 4 1 1

◼ Sequence 1: IC = 5 ◼ Sequence 2: IC = 6
◼ Clock Cycles ◼ Clock Cycles
= 2×1 + 1×2 + 2×3 = 4×1 + 1×2 + 1×3
= 10 =9
◼ Avg. CPI = 10/5 = 2.0 ◼ Avg. CPI = 9/6 = 1.5
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 13
Performance Summary
The BIG Picture

Instructio ns Clock cycles Seconds

CPU Time =  
Program Instructio n Clock cycle

◼ Performance depends on
◼ Algorithm: affects IC, possibly CPI
◼ Programming language: affects IC, CPI
◼ Compiler: affects IC, CPI
◼ Instruction set architecture: affects IC, CPI, Tc

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 14

 §1.7 The Power Wall
Power Trends

◼ In CMOS IC technology
Power = Capacitive load  Voltage 2  Frequency

×30 5V → 1V ×1000

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 15

Reducing Power
◼ Suppose a new CPU has
◼ 85% of capacitive load of old CPU
◼ 15% voltage and 15% frequency reduction
Pnew Cold  0.85  (Vold  0.85) 2  Fold  0.85
= = 0.85 4
= 0.52
Cold  Vold  Fold
2
Pold

◼ The power wall

◼ We can’t reduce voltage further
◼ We can’t remove more heat
◼ How else can we improve performance?
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 16
 §1.8 The Sea Change: The Switch to Multiprocessors
Uniprocessor Performance

Constrained by power, instruction-level parallelism,

memory latency

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 17

SPEC CPU Benchmark
◼ Programs used to measure performance
◼ Supposedly typical of actual workload
◼ Standard Performance Evaluation Corp (SPEC)
◼ Develops benchmarks for CPU, I/O, Web, …
◼ SPEC CPU2006
◼ Elapsed time to execute a selection of programs
◼ Negligible I/O, so focuses on CPU performance
◼ Normalize relative to reference machine
◼ Summarize as geometric mean of performance ratios
◼ CINT2006 (integer) and CFP2006 (floating-point)

n
n
 Execution time ratio
i=1
i

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 18

CINT2006 for Intel Core i7 920

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 19

 §1.10 Fallacies and Pitfalls
Pitfall: Amdahl’s Law
◼ Improving an aspect of a computer and
expecting a proportional improvement in
overall performance
Taffected
Timproved = + Tunaffected
improvemen t factor
◼ Example: multiply accounts for 80s/100s
◼ How much improvement in multiply performance to
get 5× overall?
80 ◼ Can’t be done!
20 = + 20
n
◼ Corollary: make the common case fast
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 20
Pitfall: MIPS as a Performance Metric
◼ MIPS: Millions of Instructions Per Second
◼ Doesn’t account for
◼ Differences in ISAs between computers
◼ Differences in complexity between instructions

Instructio n count
MIPS =
Execution time  10 6
Instructio n count Clock rate
= =
Instructio n count  CPI CPI  10 6
 10 6

Clock rate
◼ CPI varies between programs on a given CPU
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 21