research-article

L24: Parallelism, performance, energy efficiency, and cost trade-offs in future sensor platforms

Author:

Phillip Stanley-MarbellAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), Volume 13, Issue 1

Article No.: 7, Pages 1 - 27

https://doi.org/10.1145/2512465

Published: 05 September 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Networks of sensors must process large amounts of intermittently-available data in situ. This motivates the investigation of means for achieving high performance when required, but ultra-low-power dissipation when idle. One approach to this challenge is the use of embedded multiprocessor systems, leading to trade-offs between parallelism, performance, energy efficiency, and cost. To evaluate these trade-offs and to gain insight for future system designs, this article presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a miniature, energy-scalable, 24-processor module, L24, for use in embedded sensor systems.

Analytic results and empirical evidence motivating such embedded multiprocessors is provided, and a parallel fixed-point fast Fourier transform implementation is presented. This application is used as a challenging but realistic evaluator of the presented hardware platform. Through a combination of hardware measurements, instruction-level microarchitectural simulation, and analytic modeling, it is demonstrated that the platform provides idle power dissipation over an order of magnitude lower than systems employing a monolithic processor of equivalent performance, while dynamic power dissipation remains competitive.

Taking into account both application computation and interprocessor communication demands, it is shown that there may exist an optimum operating voltage that minimizes either time-to-solution, energy usage, or the energy-delay product. This optimum operating point is formulated analytically, calibrated with system measurements, and evaluated for the hardware platform and application presented.

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Cited By

Stanley-Marbell P(2015)How device properties influence energy-delay metrics and the energy-efficiency of parallel computationsProceedings of the Workshop on Power-Aware Computing and Systems10.1145/2818613.2818744(31-35)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2818613.2818744

Index Terms

L24: Parallelism, performance, energy efficiency, and cost trade-offs in future sensor platforms
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Architectures
    1. Parallel architectures
      1. Interconnection architectures
2. Hardware
  1. Communication hardware, interfaces and storage
    1. Buses and high-speed links
  2. Robustness

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems

ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems Volume 13, Issue 1

August 2013

332 pages

ISSN:1539-9087

EISSN:1558-3465

DOI:10.1145/2501626

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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ACM Journals for the Design of Smart and Connected Systems

Publication History

Published: 05 September 2013

Accepted: 01 October 2011

Revised: 01 May 2011

Received: 01 December 2010

Published in TECS Volume 13, Issue 1

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Cited By

Stanley-Marbell P(2015)How device properties influence energy-delay metrics and the energy-efficiency of parallel computationsProceedings of the Workshop on Power-Aware Computing and Systems10.1145/2818613.2818744(31-35)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2818613.2818744

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