research-article

Architecture support for disciplined approximate programming

Authors:

Hadi Esmaeilzadeh,

Adrian Sampson,

Doug BurgerAuthors Info & Claims

ASPLOS XVII: Proceedings of the seventeenth international conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems

Pages 301 - 312

https://doi.org/10.1145/2150976.2151008

Published: 03 March 2012 Publication History

Abstract

Disciplined approximate programming lets programmers declare which parts of a program can be computed approximately and consequently at a lower energy cost. The compiler proves statically that all approximate computation is properly isolated from precise computation. The hardware is then free to selectively apply approximate storage and approximate computation with no need to perform dynamic correctness checks.

In this paper, we propose an efficient mapping of disciplined approximate programming onto hardware. We describe an ISA extension that provides approximate operations and storage, which give the hardware freedom to save energy at the cost of accuracy. We then propose Truffle, a microarchitecture design that efficiently supports the ISA extensions. The basis of our design is dual-voltage operation, with a high voltage for precise operations and a low voltage for approximate operations. The key aspect of the microarchitecture is its dependence on the instruction stream to determine when to use the low voltage. We evaluate the power savings potential of in-order and out-of-order Truffle configurations and explore the resulting quality of service degradation. We evaluate several applications and demonstrate energy savings up to 43%.

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Dong WKestor GLi DButt AMi NChard K(2023)Auto-HPCnet: An Automatic Framework to Build Neural Network-based Surrogate for High-Performance Computing ApplicationsProceedings of the 32nd International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing10.1145/3588195.3592985(31-44)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
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Fink ZParasyris KGeorgakoudis GMenon HMohror KArnold DBadia R(2023)HPAC-Offload: Accelerating HPC Applications with Portable Approximate Computing on the GPUProceedings of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis10.1145/3581784.3607095(1-14)Online publication date: 12-Nov-2023
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Aditya PSankeerthana BReddy KVasanth P(2023)ASIC Implementation of Approximate Single Precision Floating Point Multiplier2023 World Conference on Communication & Computing (WCONF)10.1109/WCONF58270.2023.10235173(1-4)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2023
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Index Terms

Architecture support for disciplined approximate programming
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Architectures
    1. Other architectures
2. Hardware
  1. Communication hardware, interfaces and storage

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ASPLOS XVII: Proceedings of the seventeenth international conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems

March 2012

476 pages

ISBN:9781450307598

DOI:10.1145/2150976

General Chair:
Tim Harris
Microsoft Research
,
Program Chair:
Michael L. Scott
University of Rochester

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 47, Issue 4
ASPLOS '12
April 2012
453 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2248487
Issue’s Table of Contents
ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News Volume 40, Issue 1
ASPLOS '12
March 2012
453 pages
ISSN:0163-5964
DOI:10.1145/2189750
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2012 ACM.

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Published: 03 March 2012

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ASPLOS'12: Seventeenth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems

March 3 - 7, 2012

London, England, UK

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3588195.3592985
Fink ZParasyris KGeorgakoudis GMenon HMohror KArnold DBadia R(2023)HPAC-Offload: Accelerating HPC Applications with Portable Approximate Computing on the GPUProceedings of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis10.1145/3581784.3607095(1-14)Online publication date: 12-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3581784.3607095
Aditya PSankeerthana BReddy KVasanth P(2023)ASIC Implementation of Approximate Single Precision Floating Point Multiplier2023 World Conference on Communication & Computing (WCONF)10.1109/WCONF58270.2023.10235173(1-4)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/WCONF58270.2023.10235173
Vafaei JAkbari OShafique MHochberger C(2023)X-Rel: Energy-Efficient and Low-Overhead Approximate Reliability Framework for Error-Tolerant Applications Deployed in Critical SystemsIEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems10.1109/TVLSI.2023.327222631:7(1051-1064)Online publication date: Jul-2023
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Jiang ZDai XBurns AAudsley NGu ZGray I(2023)A High-Resilience Imprecise Computing Architecture for Mixed-Criticality SystemsIEEE Transactions on Computers10.1109/TC.2022.320272172:1(29-42)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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Menon HDiffenderfer JGeorgakoudis GLaguna ILam MOsei-Kuffuor DParasyris KVanover J(2023)Approximate High-Performance Computing: A Fast and Energy-Efficient Computing Paradigm in the Post-Moore EraIT Professional10.1109/MITP.2023.325464225:2(7-15)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
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Honda YMasuda YIshihara T(2023)Feedback-Tuned Fuzzing for Accelerating Quality Verification of Approximate Computing Design2023 IEEE 29th International Symposium on On-Line Testing and Robust System Design (IOLTS)10.1109/IOLTS59296.2023.10224891(1-3)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2023
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Soni MPal AMiguel J(2022)As-Is Approximate ComputingACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization10.1145/355976120:1(1-26)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
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Kamahori KTakamaeda-Yamazaki S(2022)Accelerating Decision Tree Ensemble with Guided Branch ApproximationProceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Highly-Efficient Accelerators and Reconfigurable Technologies10.1145/3535044.3535048(24-32)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2022
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Wu YJiang HMa ZGou PLu YHan JYin SWei SLiu L(2022)An Energy-Efficient Approximate Divider Based on Logarithmic Conversion and Piecewise Constant ApproximationIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers10.1109/TCSI.2022.316789469:7(2655-2668)Online publication date: Jul-2022
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