Online task scheduler in 3D-MCPs with TADVA

• Published in: Chronic diseases and translational medicine Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 44 - 52
• Main Authors: Liao, Chien-Hui, Wen, Charles Hung-Pin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing The Institution of Engineering and Technology 01.03.2018; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: 3D multicore processors; 3D‐MCP; Algorithms; DVA strategies; dynamic‐voltage‐assignment; Heat; high‐performance operating modes; multiprocessing systems; online task scheduler; power aware computing; processor scheduling; random DVA; Research Article; Simulation; TADVA2.0; Temperature; temperature‐variation rates; thermal behaviours; thermally constrained task schedulers; thermal‐aware DVA; online task scheduler; thermally constrained task schedulers; 3D multicore processors; multiprocessing systems; 3D-MCP; TADVA2.0; temperature-variation rates; processor scheduling; DVA strategies; power aware computing; high-performance operating modes; thermal behaviours; thermal-aware DVA; dynamic-voltage-assignment; random DVA
• ISSN: 1751-8601; 1751-861X; 2095-882X; 1751-861X; 2589-0514
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-cdt.2017.0014

Hotspots occur frequently in three-dimensional (3D) multi-core processors (3D-MCPs), and they may adversely impact both the reliability and lifetime of a system. The authors present dynamic-voltage-assignment (DVA) strategies that reduce hotspots in and optimise the performance of 3D-MCPs by pre-emptively selecting voltages among low-power and high-performance operating modes. The proposed DVA strategies can be employed in online, thermally constrained task schedulers. Three DVA strategies, random DVA, thermal-aware DVA (TADVA) and TADVA2.0, are proposed to reduce the temperature increase in 3D-MCPs by pre-emptively and dynamically estimating the optimum VAs for all cores in the processor during runtime once the chip begins operating. In particular, TADVA2.0 uses the temperature-variation rates of the cores and takes into account two important thermal behaviours of 3D-MCPs that can effectively limit the temperature increase in 3D-MCPs. Experimental results indicate that, when compared with two previous online thermally constrained task schedulers, the proposed task scheduler with their novel DVA strategy can reduce hotspot occurrences by ∼60% and improve throughput by ∼8%. These results indicate that the proposed TADVA2.0 strategy is an effective technique for suppressing hotspot occurrences and optimising throughput for 3D-MCPs subject to thermal constraints.