The named-state register file
P.R. Nuth · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · 1993
A register file is a critical resource of modern processors. Most hardware and software mechanisms to manage registers across procedure calls do not efficiently support multithreaded programs. To switch between parallel threads, a conventional processor must spill and reload thread contexts from registers to memory. If context switches are frequent and unpredictable, a large fraction of execution time is spent saving and restoring registers. This thesis introduces the Named-State Register File, a fine-grain, fully-associative register organization. The NSF uses hardware and software mechanisms to manage registers among many concurrent activations. The NSF enables both fast context switching and efficient sequential program performance. The NSF holds more live data than conventional register files, and requires much less spill and reload traffic to switch between concurrent active contexts. The NSF speeds execution of some sequential and parallel programs by 9% to 17% over alternative r...