학술논문

Dynamic SIMD re-convergence with paired-path comparison
Document Type
Conference
Source
2016 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2016 IEEE International Symposium on. :233-236 May, 2016
Subject
Aerospace
Bioengineering
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Signal Processing and Analysis
Convergence
Graphics processing units
Benchmark testing
Computer architecture
Kernel
Hardware
Parallel processing
Branch divergence
GPGPU
HSA
SIMD
warp
Language
ISSN
2379-447X
Abstract
SIMD divergence is one of the critical factors that decrease the hardware utilization in contemporary GPGPUs (General Purpose Graphic Processor Unit). Both the reconvergence scheme and control flow detection have to be well considered. In the emerging HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture) platform, we develop an effective dynamic stack-based re-convergence scheme that can be implemented without the insertion of re-convergence instructions generated by the finalizer. The stack keeps track of the minimal necessary information of the taken and non-taken paths; the additional end-of-branch instruction insertion is no longer required under our design. Using the scheme we propose, the divergent warp dynamically re-converges at opportunistic re-convergence points. The activity factor improves for 13.36% on average from opportunistic early re-convergence in the unstructured control flow. Our design has eased the development of a finalizer that no longer needs to reason about the reconvergence point after a branch divergence, especially for unstructured control flow.