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Potential and Limitation of High-Frequency Cores and Caches

Kunal Pai, Anusheel Nand, Jason Lowe-Power

TL;DR

This study implements models of in-order and out-of-order cores operating at high clock frequencies associated with superconductor electronics and cryogenic semiconductor computing in gem5, and shows the potential speedups achievable by these components and the limitations posed by cache bandwidth.

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of cryogenic semiconductor computing and superconductor electronics as promising alternatives to traditional semiconductor devices. As semiconductor devices face challenges such as increased leakage currents and reduced performance at higher temperatures, these novel technologies offer high performance and low power computation. Conventional semiconductor electronics operating at cryogenic temperatures (below -150°C or 123.15 K) can benefit from reduced leakage currents and improved electron mobility. On the other hand, superconductor electronics, operating below 10 K, allow electrons to flow without resistance, offering the potential for ultra-low-power, high-speed computation. This study presents a comprehensive performance modeling and analysis of these technologies and provides insights into their potential benefits and limitations. We implement models of in-order and out-of-order cores operating at high clock frequencies associated with superconductor electronics and cryogenic semiconductor computing in gem5. We evaluate the performance of these components using workloads representative of real-world applications like NPB, SPEC CPU2006, and GAPBS. Our results show the potential speedups achievable by these components and the limitations posed by cache bandwidth. This work provides valuable insights into the performance implications and design trade-offs associated with cryogenic and superconductor technologies, laying the foundation for future research in this field using gem5.

Potential and Limitation of High-Frequency Cores and Caches

TL;DR

This study implements models of in-order and out-of-order cores operating at high clock frequencies associated with superconductor electronics and cryogenic semiconductor computing in gem5, and shows the potential speedups achievable by these components and the limitations posed by cache bandwidth.

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of cryogenic semiconductor computing and superconductor electronics as promising alternatives to traditional semiconductor devices. As semiconductor devices face challenges such as increased leakage currents and reduced performance at higher temperatures, these novel technologies offer high performance and low power computation. Conventional semiconductor electronics operating at cryogenic temperatures (below -150°C or 123.15 K) can benefit from reduced leakage currents and improved electron mobility. On the other hand, superconductor electronics, operating below 10 K, allow electrons to flow without resistance, offering the potential for ultra-low-power, high-speed computation. This study presents a comprehensive performance modeling and analysis of these technologies and provides insights into their potential benefits and limitations. We implement models of in-order and out-of-order cores operating at high clock frequencies associated with superconductor electronics and cryogenic semiconductor computing in gem5. We evaluate the performance of these components using workloads representative of real-world applications like NPB, SPEC CPU2006, and GAPBS. Our results show the potential speedups achievable by these components and the limitations posed by cache bandwidth. This work provides valuable insights into the performance implications and design trade-offs associated with cryogenic and superconductor technologies, laying the foundation for future research in this field using gem5.
Paper Structure (14 sections, 5 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 14 sections, 5 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Methodology
  4. Core Microarchitecture
  5. Cache Microarchitecture
  6. Workloads
  7. Experimental Setup
  8. Results
  9. Workload Performance with Increasing Clock Frequency in Superconductor Environments
  10. Effect of Core Type (Out-of-Order vs. In-Order) on Workload Performance
  11. New Constraints for Leveraging Improved Performance from Increased Clock Frequency
  12. Limitations
  13. Related Work
  14. Conclusion

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Schematic representation of different clock domains of the board. Different colored rectangles represent different clock domains.
  • Figure 2: Speedup of workloads with respect to their respective core architectures.
  • Figure 3: L3 cache misses per kilo instructions (MPKI) for the small and large workloads.
  • Figure 4: Speedup of workloads with respect to the out-of-order CryoCore and CryoCache configuration, in different setups.
  • Figure 5: L1D cache bandwidth for the small and large workloads.