Scalar Processor Design.ppt

Scalar Processor Design Phenomenal advances in its brief lifetime of 30+ years: X2/18mo in 30yr.? multi-GFLOPs processors, inspiring and facilitating major innovations in: Embedded microcontrollers (300 millions sold in 2000) Personal computers (150 millions sold in 2000) Advanced workstations Handheld and mobile devices Application and file servers (4 millions sold in 2000) Web servers for the Internet Low-cost supercomputers Large-scale computing clusters Well over one billion microprocessors shipped per year The amazing decades of the evolution of microprocessors: Scalar Processor Design Past (Milestones): First electronic computer ENIAC in 1946: 18,000 vacuum tubes, 3,000 cubic feet, 20 2-foot 10-digit registers, 5 KIPs (thousand additions per second); First microprocessor (a CPU on a single IC chip) Intel 4004 in 1971: 2,300 transistors, 60 KIPs, $200; Virtual elimination of assembly language programming reduced the need for object-code compatibility; The creation of standardized, vendor-independent operating systems, such as UNIX and its clone, Linux, lowered the cost and risk of bringing out a new architecture RISC instruction set architecture paved ways for drastic design innovations that focused on two critical performance techniques: instruction-level parallelism and use of caches Scalar Processor Design Present (State of the art): Microprocessors approaching/surpassing 10 GFLOPS; A high-end microprocessor ($10K) today is easily more powerful than a supercomputer ($10million) ten years ago; While technology advancement contributes a sustained annual growth of 35%, innovative computer design accounts for another 25% annual growth rate ? a factor of 15 in performance gains!(fig1.1) Three different computing markets (fig. 1.3): Desktop Computing –- driven by price-performance (a few hundreds through over 10K); Servers – availability driven (distinguished from reliability), providing sustained high performance Embedded Computers – fastest growing portion