COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND DESIGN ARM

Edition
The Hardware/Software Interface

Chapter 1
Computer Abstractions
and Technology
 §1.1 Introduction
The Computer Revolution
◼ Progress in computer technology
◼ Underpinned by Moore’s Law
◼ Makes novel applications feasible
◼ Computers in automobiles
◼ Cell phones
◼ Human genome project
◼ World Wide Web
◼ Search Engines
◼ Computers are pervasive

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 2

Classes of Computers
◼ Personal computers
◼ General purpose, variety of software
◼ Subject to cost/performance tradeoff

◼ Server computers
◼ Network based
◼ High capacity, performance, reliability
◼ Range from small servers to building sized

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 3

Classes of Computers
◼ Supercomputers
◼ High-end scientific and engineering
calculations
◼ Highest capability but represent a small
fraction of the overall computer market

◼ Embedded computers
◼ Hidden as components of systems
◼ Stringent power/performance/cost constraints

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 4

The PostPC Era

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 5

The PostPC Era
◼ Personal Mobile Device (PMD)
◼ Battery operated
◼ Connects to the Internet
◼ Hundreds of dollars
◼ Smart phones, tablets, electronic glasses
◼ Cloud computing
◼ Warehouse Scale Computers (WSC)
◼ Software as a Service (SaaS)
◼ Portion of software run on a PMD and a
portion run in the Cloud
◼ Amazon and Google
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 6
What You Will Learn
◼ How programs are translated into the
machine language
◼ And how the hardware executes them
◼ The hardware/software interface
◼ What determines program performance
◼ And how it can be improved
◼ How hardware designers improve
performance
◼ What is parallel processing
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 7
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 — 8

 §1.2 Eight Great Ideas in Computer Architecture
Eight Great Ideas
◼ Design for Moore’s Law

◼ Use abstraction to simplify design

◼ Make the common case fast

◼ Performance via parallelism

◼ Performance via pipelining

◼ Performance via prediction

◼ Hierarchy of memories

◼ Dependability via redundancy

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 9

 §1.3 Below Your Program
Below Your Program
◼ Application software
◼ Written in high-level language
◼ System software
◼ Compiler: translates HLL code to
machine code
◼ Operating System: service code
◼ Handling input/output
◼ Managing memory and storage
◼ Scheduling tasks & sharing resources
◼ Hardware
◼ Processor, memory, I/O controllers

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 10

Levels of Program Code
◼ High-level language
◼ Level of abstraction closer
to problem domain
◼ Provides for productivity
and portability
◼ Assembly language
◼ Textual representation of
instructions
◼ Hardware representation
◼ Binary digits (bits)
◼ Encoded instructions and
data

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 11

 §1.4 Under the Covers
Components of a Computer
The BIG Picture ◼ Same components for
all kinds of computer
◼ Desktop, server,
embedded
◼ Input/output includes
◼ User-interface devices
◼ Display, keyboard, mouse
◼ Storage devices
◼ Hard disk, CD/DVD, flash
◼ Network adapters
◼ For communicating with
other computers

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 12

Touchscreen
◼ PostPC device
◼ Supersedes keyboard
and mouse
◼ Resistive and
Capacitive types
◼ Most tablets, smart
phones use capacitive
◼ Capacitive allows
multiple touches
simultaneously

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 13

Through the Looking Glass
◼ LCD screen: picture elements (pixels)
◼ Mirrors content of frame buffer memory

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 14

Opening the Box
Capacitive multitouch LCD screen

3.8 V, 25 Watt-hour battery

Computer board

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 15

Inside the Processor (CPU)
◼ Datapath: performs operations on data
◼ Control: sequences datapath, memory, ...
◼ Cache memory
◼ Small fast SRAM memory for immediate
access to data

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 16

Inside the Processor
◼ Apple A5

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 17

Abstractions
The BIG Picture

◼ Abstraction helps us deal with complexity

◼ Hide lower-level detail
◼ Instruction set architecture (ISA)
◼ The hardware/software interface
◼ Application binary interface
◼ The ISA plus system software interface
◼ Implementation
◼ The details underlying and interface
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 18
A Safe Place for Data
◼ Volatile main memory
◼ Loses instructions and data when power off
◼ Non-volatile secondary memory
◼ Magnetic disk
◼ Flash memory
◼ Optical disk (CDROM, DVD)

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 19

Networks
◼ Communication, resource sharing,
nonlocal access
◼ Local area network (LAN): Ethernet
◼ Wide area network (WAN): the Internet
◼ Wireless network: WiFi, Bluetooth

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 20

 §1.5 Technologies for Building Processors and Memory
Technology Trends
◼ Electronics
technology
continues to evolve
◼ Increased capacity
and performance
◼ Reduced cost
DRAM capacity

Year Technology Relative performance/cost

1951 Vacuum tube 1
1965 Transistor 35
1975 Integrated circuit (IC) 900
1995 Very large scale IC (VLSI) 2,400,000
2013 Ultra large scale IC 250,000,000,000

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 21

Semiconductor Technology
◼ Silicon: semiconductor
◼ Add materials to transform properties:
◼ Conductors
◼ Insulators
◼ Switch

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 22

Manufacturing ICs

◼ Yield: proportion of working dies per wafer

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 23

Intel Core i7 Wafer

◼ 300mm wafer, 280 chips, 32nm technology (the

smallest feature size on the die 32nm.)
◼ Each chip is 20.7 x 10.5 mm
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 24
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 25
Integrated Circuit Cost
Cost per wafer
Cost per die =
Dies per wafer  Yield
Dies per wafer  Wafer area Die area
1
Yield =
(1+ (Defects per area Die area/2))2

◼ Nonlinear relation to area and defect rate

◼ Wafer cost and area are fixed
◼ Defect rate determined by manufacturing process
◼ Die area determined by architecture and circuit design

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 26

 §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 — 27

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 — 28

Relative Performance
◼ Define Performance = 1/Execution Time
◼ “X is n time faster than Y”
Performance X Performance 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 — 29
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 — 30
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 — 31
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 — 32

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? (4GHz)
Clock CyclesB 1.2  Clock CyclesA
Clock RateB = =
CPU TimeB 6s
Clock CyclesA = CPU Time A  Clock RateA
= 10s  2GHz = 20  109
1.2  20  109 24  109
Clock RateB = = = 4GHz
6s 6s
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 33
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 — 34

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 — 35
 CPI in More Detail
◼ If different instruction classes take different
numbers of cycles
n
Clock Cycles =  (CPIi  Instruction Counti )
i=1

◼ Weighted average CPI

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

Relative frequency

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 36

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 — 37
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 — 38

Understanding Program Performance

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 39

Power Trends
◼ Figure 1.16 shows the increase in clock rate
and power of eight generations of Intel
microprocessors over 30 years.
◼ Both clock rate and power increased rapidly
for decades and then flattened off recently.
◼ The reason they grew together is that they
are correlated, and
◼ the reason for their recent slowing is that we
have run into the practical power limit for
cooling commodity microprocessors.
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 40
 §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 — 41

 §1.7 The Power Wall
Power Trends
• For CMOS, the primary source of energy
consumption is so-called dynamic energy—that
is, energy that is consumed when transistors
switch states from 0 to 1 and vice versa. The • With regard to Figure 1.16, how could clock
dynamic energy depends on the capacitive rates grow by a factor of 1000 while power
loading of each transistor and the voltage increased by only a factor of 30? Energy
applied. and thus power can be reduced by lowering
• The capacitive load per transistor is a function the voltage, which occurred with each new
of both the number of transistors connected to generation of technology, and power is a
an output (called the fanout) and the function of the voltage squared.
technology. • Typically, the voltage was reduced about
15% per generation. In 20 years, voltages
have gone from 5 V to 1 V, which is why the
increase in power is only 30 times.

◼ In CMOS IC technology, power is as follows:

Power = Capacitive load  Voltage 2  Frequency

×30 5V → 1V ×1000

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 42

Power density

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 43

Power density

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 44

Power consumption
◼ Although power provides a limit to what we
can cool, in the post-PC era the really
valuable resource is energy. Battery life
can trump performance in the personal
mobile device, and
◼ the architects of warehouse scale
computers try to reduce the costs of
powering and cooling 100,000 servers as
the costs are high at this scale.

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 45

Reducing Power
◼ Suppose a new CPU has
◼ 85% of capacitive load of old CPU
◼ 15% less voltage and 15% frequency reduction
◼ What is the impact on dynamic power?
Pnew Cold  0.85 (Vold  0.85)2  Fold  0.85
= = 0.854
= 0.52
Cold  Vold  Fold
2
Pold
◼ Hence, the new processor uses about half the power of the old
processor.
◼ 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 — 46

 §1.8 The Sea Change: The Switch to Multiprocessors
Uniprocessor Performance

Since 2002, the limits of power, available instruction-level parallelism, and

long memory latency have slowed uniprocessor performance recently, to about 22%
per year.

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 47

Multiprocessors
◼ Rather than continuing to decrease the response time of one
program running on the single processor, as of 2006 all
desktop and server companies are shipping microprocessors
with multiple processors per chip, where the benefit is often
more on throughput than on response time.
◼ Multicore microprocessors
◼ More than one processor per chip
◼ Requires explicitly parallel programming
◼ Compare with instruction level parallelism
◼ Hardware executes multiple instructions at once
◼ Hidden from the programmer
◼ Hard to do
◼ Programming for performance
◼ Load balancing
◼ Optimizing communication and synchronization

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 48

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 — 49

CINT2006 for Intel Core i7 920

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 50

SPEC Power Benchmark
◼ Given the increasing importance of energy and power,
SPEC added a benchmark to measure power. It
reports power consumption of servers at different
workload levels, divided into 10% increments, over a
period of time.
◼ Performance: ssj_ops/sec
◼ Power: Watts (Joules/sec)

 10   10 
Overall ssj_ops per Watt =   ssj_opsi    poweri 
 i =0   i =0 
• ssj_opsi is performance at each 10% increment and
• poweri is power consumed at each performance level.

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 51

SPECpower_ssj2008 for Xeon X5650

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 52

 §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
◼ Suppose a program runs in 100 seconds on a computer, with multiply
operations responsible for 80 seconds of this time. How much do I
have to improve the speed of multiplication if I want my program to
run five times faster?
80 Can’t be done!
20 = + 20 ◼
n
◼ Corollary: make the common case fast
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 53
Fallacy: Low Power at Idle
◼ Look back at i7 power benchmark
◼ At 100% load: 258W
◼ At 50% load: 170W (66%)
◼ At 10% load: 121W (47%)
◼ Google data center
◼ Mostly operates at 10% – 50% load
◼ At 100% load less than 1% of the time
◼ Consider designing processors to make
power proportional to load

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 54

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

Instruction count
MIPS =
Execution time  106
Instruction count Clock rate
= =
Instruction count  CPI CPI  10 6
 10 6

Clock rate
◼ CPI varies between programs on a given CPU
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 55
 §1.9 Concluding Remarks
Concluding Remarks
◼ Cost/performance is improving
◼ Due to underlying technology development
◼ Hierarchical layers of abstraction
◼ In both hardware and software
◼ Instruction set architecture
◼ The hardware/software interface
◼ Execution time: the best performance
measure
◼ Power is a limiting factor
◼ Use parallelism to improve performance
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 56