setn016 Col folV(e3-Tea va sie) a RING’ GEAR & GADGETS / PRODUCT NEWS & REVIEWS RISC vs. CISC ine mobile ora | Avs Techrica ro Ceuta) CCloudBerry Lab RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era For any Ars Technica readers who've been with us since 1998 and who fondly ‘Simultaneous multithreading and performance/watt \Whilo some fot soe simuitanoous multroading (SMT) asa porormance-enhancing featur, its realy aimed atone thing: SMT inereases execution un uttzaton by funneing more instructions to the processor, so thatthe front end and back end Gath spend less time wating on instructions and {ata to lad from memory and more time doing useful work More work fo do means less wasted processor eydes, and less wasted cycles mean more power efficiency overall ‘So for workloads that are mulithreaded, SMT can provide a real performance per wal boost, but i 0s 0 ala cost ‘Simutaneous murtveading adds some extra UK to Aton’ font ond and executlon core, because {2 numberof key tucturas must be cupestad. Specialy, Alom contams two of each ofthe follwing srucures, one foreach thread + Predecode queue + 18-enty Instruction queue + Abit integer register fle + 128-bi Floating-poin'SIMD register fe ‘Atoms designers clearly thought that he power effciency advantage afforded by SMT was enough to offset the cuplicaton of key svuctures required. Im nota mind reader, but | suspect that thre are ‘wo factors tha probably motivate them to make this ade-of Fest, Atom has no instruction window that would have tobe enlarged to accommodate SMT. An instruction window (a reorder butfer and a set of reservation stations) is an unusually cosy feature, not justin terms of transistors but in terms of raw power consumption. Unike many of the part of the processor that go ie an can be shut down, the reorder buters active as long asthe processors ‘executing code, So this fary large structure, which ses constant use, has ta grow even larger for SMT processors tke Intets forthcoming Nehalem. Atom’ lack ofan instruction window means that th addition of SMT is less cost than t would be otherwise. ‘The second factors one that |aluded fo in he previous secton: SMT lets an x86 core amotize the igh cost ofthe decade block ever mutiple threads. To understand what 'm talking about, telps to consider bret how Atoms competion does things. [ARMs flagship embedded partis the Cortex A-9, a modular, out-of-order core designed for multicore implementations, The A-9 was ofealy unveiled inate 2007, and | eame away trom a brefng ont ‘airy mprassed, havent seen any rel AS benchmarks, but given how wall he in-ordar Carta 8 {0s I think it key that an A-8 cor wll beat the pants off fan Alom core in perfermancetwatt on single-tnreaded workloads Incvidual 49 cores have avery, very small footprint, so that they can be easly ganged together in ‘wo- and four-core embedded systoms-on-a-chip. ARM dosh! support SMT wih A-8 because thoy clearly rather just put down mare, smaller cores instead, But an x88 deslgn probably can never afford 1 take this approach, because ofthe high cos of the dscods block and ofthe rast ofthe hardware weded to Suppor the ful ange of x88 ISA extensions. I woul! hypothesize that's more power fen for an x86 design to attach two ofeach shared structure Ist above toa single deco Block and a single sot of 84-bit and 128-bt datapaths, tnanto spi those structures into two separate Single-threaded cores. In conteas, an ARM design fs btter off wit “one thread, one core" model hiplarstechrica comigadgets 20080SHise-vs-cise-metile-eral Sync Files Using ® AWS S3 Sync files between 2+ Windows PC's Using Amazon S3. Free Download. LATEST FROM ARS TECHNICAY/UK . “Dragon thief” Jurassic dinosaur discovered in Wales Nintendo censors controversial “gay conversion” scene in Fire Emblem: Fates IPs told to clean up act on z£ “ambiguous” broadband prices in ads nae, xtnnul Foxconn bids £3.6 billion to take over Japan’s embattled Sharp Mozilla co-founder unveils Brave, a Web browser that blocks ads by default LATEST FEATURE STORY . AEST 9 Numbers don’t lie—it’s time to build your own router hh more speed avaiable and hardware that ‘can't adept, DIY bulls offer peak performance, ‘STAY INTHE KNOW WITH 48setn016 RISC vs. CISC ine mobile ora | Avs Techrica because i doesnt need to amortize the cost of al thal hardware over ultipe threads conclusions Inthe near to medlum tem, Atom and its predecessors wil pay areately hey price fr ther CISC legacy. More benchmaris will give a clearer picture of whatherircks ke SM, whan combined with Intes ongoing procoss enginoering leadership, wil owor that price enough to enable x86 to squeeze [ARM out of ome future version ofan Phone-ke devie. In adton to SMT, the otter mieroarchictual rik that I see on the Ing-tarm horizon for Alom is the return ofan instructon \iedow: this wl provide a realboost in performancelwat, and Intel may be able fo introduce i at 232nm o ater. ‘The question of how wall ne wil fare inthe renewed RISC ve. CISC bate that's aking shape inthe mobile space hinges rgely on the answer to two questions 1 How much is he legacy x86 code base really worth for mobile and utramobile devices? The consensus seams tebe “not much,” and I vacate on this question quit @ bt. This queston rors an one article of ts own, though, 2, Wil nel retain ts process leadership vs. foundries tke TSM, which are rapidly eatehing up tot in ther timetables for process transtons’? ARM, MIPS, and other players mobile device space that haven't mentioned tke NVIDIA, AMDIATI, MA, and PowerVR,alldepend on these foundries to get their chips to market, so being one process node behind hurts them. Butf these RISC and mobil graphics products can compote wih Iles ofeings on feature size, then that ‘wil neutvalze Inter considerable process advantage “This arc is just my rat atampt to take stock of one camar ofthe radically aketed terrain on which this now battlo plays out, so withhold ary more detalod thoughts onthe answers o those ‘questions for later date. Besides, | havent even talked about what VIA and AMDIAT are upto. Its ‘also the case that GPUs will py @ considerable pati he embedded processor wars, aswell, 90 ‘any discussion that focuses solely on the processor mieroarehtecture will miss the mark, And because these GPUs will be an the same ae the processor core ther relationship tothe processor ore—both in torms of ther physical integration and in terms of how the diferent venders align wit ‘one another—¢ much dierent than ts on the desktop Ina ts once again a great time tobe a processor geek, anc lock forward to ancther decade of roving fodeer for a whole new ound af platform wars. PAGE: 1 2 3 EADERCOMMENTS © 7 0. 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