Research Summary
Cecilia Gonzalez-Alvarez, born in March 3rd , 1984
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
Electronics and Information Systems department
Invitation
Monday, November 16th 2015
to the public defense of the Ph.D thesis of
Cecilia González-Álvarez
Automated Design of Domain-Specific Custom
Instructions
Curriculum Vitae
Custom instructions (CIs) can improve the perfor-
mance and energy efficiency of a microprocessor.
CIs accelerate specific functions of applications in
specialized hardware. However, if CIs are not fre-
quently used, the acceleration benefits will not com-
pensate for the cost of an application-specific design.
Domain-specific acceleration targets multiple appli-
cations, increasing the applicability of CIs, but ma-
king the design process more complex. In this dis-
sertation, we explore automated approaches to de-
sign domain-specific CIs.
First, we propose an analysis at the basic block level
that identifies equivalent CIs within and across dif-
ferent programs. To do this, we propose a canonical
representation as well as heuristics to select the best
CIs. We observe that, with a limited specialization
chip area, a mix of application and domain-specific
CIs results in the best speedup.
To improve the reusability of CIs, we create a new
canonical representation across basic blocks, and we
introduce clustering-based partial matching to iden-
tify partially-similar domain-specific CIs. At small
chip areas, our CIs significantly improve the energy-
efficiency and performance of applications within a
domain.
in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, received her degree in In-
formatics Engineering in 2007, and her MSc in Com-
puter Architecture in 2009, both at the Universitat
Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC).
Since 2009, Cecilia is affiliated to the Computer Ar-
chitecture department at UPC, and since 2013 to the
Electronics and Information Systems department at
Ghent University, thanks to a joint Ph.D. agreement.
She did her research in processor specialization un-
der the supervision of prof. Lieven Eeckhout, prof.
Daniel Jimenez-Gonzalez en prof. Carlos Alvarez.
Between 2009 and 2011, she was affiliated to the Pro-
gramming Models group of Barcelona Supercom-
puting Center. In 2011, Cecilia did a 3-month intern-
ship at ARM, Cambridge, UK. Between September
2011 and March 2013, she worked at Waseda Univer-
sity in Japan, thanks to a research scholarship from
the Japanese government.
Her research has produced six peer-reviewed publi-
cations in international journals, conferences and
workshops. She received the “best student paper
award” for her publication at the IEEE Interna-
tional Conference on Application-specific Systems,
Architectures and Processors (ASAP) in July 2015 in
Toronto, Canada.
 How to get there Advisors
Sint Michielshelling Centrum
Prof. Lieven Eeckhout
Sint Michielskerk
Ghent University
Hoogstraat
Prof. Daniel Jiménez-González
Details Poel
P7 Pand Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

The defense takes place on Prof. Carlos Álvarez

Monday, November 16th 2015 at 17u30, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Zwartezusterstraat Jakobijnenstraat
room Rector Blancquaert in ‘Het Pand’,
Onderbergen 1, 9000 Gent.

Onderbergen
Examination and reading com-

Ajuinlei
Oude Houtlei
After the public defense, you are
welcome to a reception, also in ‘Het Pand’. mittee
Kouter
Please, confirm your assistance Prof. Luc Taerwe

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before Friday, November 6th .

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Chairman, prodean, Ghent University

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Cecilia.GonzalezAlvarez@UGent.be

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Prof. Koen de Bosschere

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Papegaaistraat
0485 53 22 41 Secretary, Ghent University

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Ring R40

Prof. Christophe Dubach

University of Edinburgh
Public transport
• From station Ghent St-Pieters: tramway 1 or 24. Koren- Prof. Jan Fostier
markt stop. Ghent University
• From Gent Zuid: tramway 4, 24 or bus 17. Korenmarkt
stop. Dr. Wim Heirman
Intel ExaScience Lab
With the car
• Parking P7 Sint-Michiels (50 meters from Het Pand) Prof. Xavier Martorell
• Alternatively: parking P8 Ramen (5 minutes on foot to Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Het Pand).
Dr. Jennifer Sartor
Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel