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Mohammad H. Foroozannejad, Matin Hashemi, Trevor L. Hodges, Soheil Ghiasi · 2010
Many embedded applications demand processing of a seemingly endless stream of input data in real-time. Productive development of such applications is typically carried out by synthesizing software from high-level specifications, such as data-flow graphs. In this context, we study the problem of inter-actor buffer allocation, which is a critical step during compilation of streaming applications. We argue that fine-grain analysis of buffers' spatio-temporal characteristics, as opposed to conventional live range analysis, enables dramatic improvements in buffer sharing. Improved sharing translates to reduction of the compiled binary memory footprint, which is of prime concern in many embedded systems. We transform the buffer allocation problem to two-dimensional packing using complex polygons. We develop an evolutionary packing algorithm, which readily yields buffer allocations. Experimental results show an average of over 7X and 2X improvement in total buffer size, compared to baseline and conventional live range analysis schemes, respectively.