A Kernel-Directed Compiler-Assisted Dynamic Voltage Scaling algorithm
Diplomarbeit im Fach Informatik
Abstract
Energy consumption of modern computing devices is becoming an increasingly
important topic, especially for battery-powered mobile devices, as the
development of battery capacity could not keep the pace of the development
of processor performance and power consumption over the last 10 years.
One famous technique that can be used to save energy is a combination
of dynamic frequency scaling (DFS) and dynamic voltage scaling (DVS).
So far, many different DVS algorithms have been proposed, almost all of
which have in common that they are located either completely inside the
operating system kernel or on the application side, i.e. either in the
compiler or in the application itself. This study presents a compiler-kernel
cooperation, a kernel-directed compiler-assisted dynamic voltage scaling
algorithm.
Implementing the DVS algorithm inside the kernel allows to react to different
applications running simultaneously, each having different optimal operating
frequencies. A compiler-only algorithm could not achieve this. Modifying the
compiler so that is assists the kernel in determining the optimal frequency
lets the algorithm predict application behavior, which enables it to act
before changes take place rather than just react to them. The kernel alone
would not be able to do this.
Experiments conducted on an evaluation board, based on the Intel XScale
PXA architecture, have shown that the kernel-only DVS algorithm achieves
energy savings of up to 21% at a slowdown of 14% and savings of up to 25%
at a slowdown of 19% for homogenous applications with low cache efficiency.
For applications with high cache efficiency, savings between 4% (11% slowdown)
and 11% (22% slowdown) can be accomplished.
Experiments involving programs compiled by our compiler have not lead to
any improvement compared with the kernel-only algorithm for homogenous
applications. For artificial, heteregenous applications with different
sections of different cache efficiency, energy savings could by increased
from 16.5% to 18% by adding compiler support. We do, however, not consider
these applications realistic.
The claim that any kernel-only DVS algorithm is essentially inert and
second to a compiler-based approach because of its inabiliy to predict
application behavior seems unsubstantiated, at least with respect to the
XScale PXA architecture examined in this study. An adaptive kernel
algorithm is able to react to changes in application behavior within a
few system ticks. A compiler-directed DVS algorithm could not be much
faster because the flexibility is restricted by the voltage scaling
latency of the system, which only allows few frequency/voltage changes
per second.