Impact of Multimedia Extensions for Different Processing Element Granularities on an Embedded Imaging System

Abstract

Multimedia applications are among the most dominant computing workloads driving innovations in high performance and cost effective systems. In this regard, modern general-purpose microprocessors have included multimedia extensions (e.g., MMX, SSE, VIS, MAX, ALTIVEC) to their instruction set architectures to improve the performance of multimedia with little added cost to microprocessors. Whereas prior studies of multimedia extensions have primarily focused on a single processor, this paper quantitatively evaluates the impact of multimedia extensions on system performance and efficiency for different number of processing elements (PEs) within an integrated multiprocessor array. This paper also identifies the optimal PE granularity for the array system and implementation technology in terms of throughput, area efficiency, and energy efficiency using architectural and workload simulation. Experimental results with cycle accurate simulation and technology modeling show that MMX-type instructions (a representative Intel’s multimedia extensions) achieve an average speedup ranging from 1.24( (at a 65,536 PE system) to 5.65( (at a 4 PE system) over the baseline performance. In addition, the MMX-enhanced processor array increases both area and energy efficiency over the baseline for all the configurations and programs. Moreover, the highest area and energy efficiency are achieved at the number of PEs between 256 and 1,024. These evaluation techniques composed of performance simulation and technology modeling can provide solutions to the design challenges in a new class of multiprocessor array systems for multimedia.