A dependency chain clustered micro architecture
Satish Narayanasamy, Hong Wang, P. Wang, J. Shen, Brad Calder · 2005
In this paper we explore a new clustering approach for reducing the complexity of wide issue in-order processors based on EPIC architectures. Complexity effectiveness is achieved by heavily clustering the pipeline from decode to commit stage without the need for any direct bypass between clusters. This is made possible by assuming support for executing compilerconstructed traces. One trace is executed at a time by executing its coarse-grained dependency chains (DCs) in different in-order clusters. Since the DCs of a trace are mutually data independent of each other they can be executed in different clusters without any direct communication between them. To execute DCs in narrower clusters without compromising ILP, a compiler algorithm that splits large DCs by duplicating instructions is proposed.