take away all instances of reqMap in the code and make all references use the built-in
request vectors inside of each resource. The request map was dynamically allocating
a request per instruction. The request vector just allocates N number of requests
during instantiation and then the surrounding code is fixed up to reuse those N requests
***
setRequest() and clearRequest() are the new accessors needed to define a new
request in a resource
we are going to be getting away from creating new resource requests for every
instruction so no more need to keep track of a reqRemoveList and clean it up
every tick
add a stage scheduler class to replace InstStage in pipeline_traits.cc
use that class to define a default front-end, resource schedule that all
instructions will follow. This will also replace the back end schedule in
pipeline_traits.cc. The reason for adding this is so that we can cache
instruction schedules in the future instead of calling the same function
over/over again as well as constantly dynamically alllocating memory on
every instruction to try to figure out it's schedule
allow the user to specify how many instructions a pipeline stage can process
on any given cycle (stageWidth...i.e.bandwidth) by setting the parameter through
the python interface rather than compile the code after changing the *.cc file.
(we always had the parameter there, but still used the static 'ThePipeline::StageWidth'
instead)
-
Since StageWidth is now dynamically defined, change the interstage communication
structure to use a vector and get rid of array and array handling index (toNextStageIndex)
since we can just make calls to the list for the same information
There were several copies of similar functions that looked
like they all replicated reschedule(), so I replaced them
with direct calls. Keeping this separate from the previous
cset since there may be some subtle functional differences
if the code ever reschedules an event that is scheduled but
not squashed (though none were detected in the regressions).
Events need to be scheduled on the queue assigned
to the SimObject, not on the global queue (which
should be going away).
Also cleaned up a number of redundant expressions
that made the code unnecessarily verbose.
This change modifies the way prefetches work. They are now like normal loads
that don't writeback a register. Previously prefetches were supposed to call
prefetch() on the exection context, so they executed with execute() methods
instead of initiateAcc() completeAcc(). The prefetch() methods for all the CPUs
are blank, meaning that they get executed, but don't actually do anything.
On Alpha dead cache copy code was removed and prefetches are now normal ops.
They count as executed operations, but still don't do anything and IsMemRef is
not longer set on them.
On ARM IsDataPrefetch or IsInstructionPreftech is now set on all prefetch
instructions. The timing simple CPU doesn't try to do anything special for
prefetches now and they execute with the normal memory code path.
This change is a low level and pervasive reorganization of how PCs are managed
in M5. Back when Alpha was the only ISA, there were only 2 PCs to worry about,
the PC and the NPC, and the lsb of the PC signaled whether or not you were in
PAL mode. As other ISAs were added, we had to add an NNPC, micro PC and next
micropc, x86 and ARM introduced variable length instruction sets, and ARM
started to keep track of mode bits in the PC. Each CPU model handled PCs in
its own custom way that needed to be updated individually to handle the new
dimensions of variability, or, in the case of ARMs mode-bit-in-the-pc hack,
the complexity could be hidden in the ISA at the ISA implementation's expense.
Areas like the branch predictor hadn't been updated to handle branch delay
slots or micropcs, and it turns out that had introduced a significant (10s of
percent) performance bug in SPARC and to a lesser extend MIPS. Rather than
perpetuate the problem by reworking O3 again to handle the PC features needed
by x86, this change was introduced to rework PC handling in a more modular,
transparent, and hopefully efficient way.
PC type:
Rather than having the superset of all possible elements of PC state declared
in each of the CPU models, each ISA defines its own PCState type which has
exactly the elements it needs. A cross product of canned PCState classes are
defined in the new "generic" ISA directory for ISAs with/without delay slots
and microcode. These are either typedef-ed or subclassed by each ISA. To read
or write this structure through a *Context, you use the new pcState() accessor
which reads or writes depending on whether it has an argument. If you just
want the address of the current or next instruction or the current micro PC,
you can get those through read-only accessors on either the PCState type or
the *Contexts. These are instAddr(), nextInstAddr(), and microPC(). Note the
move away from readPC. That name is ambiguous since it's not clear whether or
not it should be the actual address to fetch from, or if it should have extra
bits in it like the PAL mode bit. Each class is free to define its own
functions to get at whatever values it needs however it needs to to be used in
ISA specific code. Eventually Alpha's PAL mode bit could be moved out of the
PC and into a separate field like ARM.
These types can be reset to a particular pc (where npc = pc +
sizeof(MachInst), nnpc = npc + sizeof(MachInst), upc = 0, nupc = 1 as
appropriate), printed, serialized, and compared. There is a branching()
function which encapsulates code in the CPU models that checked if an
instruction branched or not. Exactly what that means in the context of branch
delay slots which can skip an instruction when not taken is ambiguous, and
ideally this function and its uses can be eliminated. PCStates also generally
know how to advance themselves in various ways depending on if they point at
an instruction, a microop, or the last microop of a macroop. More on that
later.
Ideally, accessing all the PCs at once when setting them will improve
performance of M5 even though more data needs to be moved around. This is
because often all the PCs need to be manipulated together, and by getting them
all at once you avoid multiple function calls. Also, the PCs of a particular
thread will have spatial locality in the cache. Previously they were grouped
by element in arrays which spread out accesses.
Advancing the PC:
The PCs were previously managed entirely by the CPU which had to know about PC
semantics, try to figure out which dimension to increment the PC in, what to
set NPC/NNPC, etc. These decisions are best left to the ISA in conjunction
with the PC type itself. Because most of the information about how to
increment the PC (mainly what type of instruction it refers to) is contained
in the instruction object, a new advancePC virtual function was added to the
StaticInst class. Subclasses provide an implementation that moves around the
right element of the PC with a minimal amount of decision making. In ISAs like
Alpha, the instructions always simply assign NPC to PC without having to worry
about micropcs, nnpcs, etc. The added cost of a virtual function call should
be outweighed by not having to figure out as much about what to do with the
PCs and mucking around with the extra elements.
One drawback of making the StaticInsts advance the PC is that you have to
actually have one to advance the PC. This would, superficially, seem to
require decoding an instruction before fetch could advance. This is, as far as
I can tell, realistic. fetch would advance through memory addresses, not PCs,
perhaps predicting new memory addresses using existing ones. More
sophisticated decisions about control flow would be made later on, after the
instruction was decoded, and handed back to fetch. If branching needs to
happen, some amount of decoding needs to happen to see that it's a branch,
what the target is, etc. This could get a little more complicated if that gets
done by the predecoder, but I'm choosing to ignore that for now.
Variable length instructions:
To handle variable length instructions in x86 and ARM, the predecoder now
takes in the current PC by reference to the getExtMachInst function. It can
modify the PC however it needs to (by setting NPC to be the PC + instruction
length, for instance). This could be improved since the CPU doesn't know if
the PC was modified and always has to write it back.
ISA parser:
To support the new API, all PC related operand types were removed from the
parser and replaced with a PCState type. There are two warts on this
implementation. First, as with all the other operand types, the PCState still
has to have a valid operand type even though it doesn't use it. Second, using
syntax like PCS.npc(target) doesn't work for two reasons, this looks like the
syntax for operand type overriding, and the parser can't figure out if you're
reading or writing. Instructions that use the PCS operand (which I've
consistently called it) need to first read it into a local variable,
manipulate it, and then write it back out.
Return address stack:
The return address stack needed a little extra help because, in the presence
of branch delay slots, it has to merge together elements of the return PC and
the call PC. To handle that, a buildRetPC utility function was added. There
are basically only two versions in all the ISAs, but it didn't seem short
enough to put into the generic ISA directory. Also, the branch predictor code
in O3 and InOrder were adjusted so that they always store the PC of the actual
call instruction in the RAS, not the next PC. If the call instruction is a
microop, the next PC refers to the next microop in the same macroop which is
probably not desirable. The buildRetPC function advances the PC intelligently
to the next macroop (in an ISA specific way) so that that case works.
Change in stats:
There were no change in stats except in MIPS and SPARC in the O3 model. MIPS
runs in about 9% fewer ticks. SPARC runs with 30%-50% fewer ticks, which could
likely be improved further by setting call/return instruction flags and taking
advantage of the RAS.
TODO:
Add != operators to the PCState classes, defined trivially to be !(a==b).
Smooth out places where PCs are split apart, passed around, and put back
together later. I think this might happen in SPARC's fault code. Add ISA
specific constructors that allow setting PC elements without calling a bunch
of accessors. Try to eliminate the need for the branching() function. Factor
out Alpha's PAL mode pc bit into a separate flag field, and eliminate places
where it's blindly masked out or tested in the PC.
Also move the "Fault" reference counted pointer type into a separate file,
sim/fault.hh. It would be better to name this less similarly to sim/faults.hh
to reduce confusion, but fault.hh matches the name of the type. We could change
Fault to FaultPtr to match other pointer types, and then changing the name of
the file would make more sense.
replace priority queue with vector of lists(1 list per stage) and place inside a class
so that we have more control of when an instruction uses a particular schedule entry
...
also, this is the 1st step toward making the InOrderCPU fully parameterizable. See the
wiki for details on this process
when threads are switching in/out the CPU, we need to keep
track of special cases like branches. Add appropriate
variables in ThreadState t track this and then use
these variables when updating pc after context switch
allow a thread to wakeup and be activated after
it has been in suspended state and another
thread is switched out. Need to give
pipeline stages a "activateThread" function
so that can get to their suspended instruction
when the time is right.
update/add in the use of isThreadReady & isThreadSuspended
functions.Check in activateThread what list a thread is
on so it can be managed accordingly.
-Support ability to activate next ready thread after a cache miss
through the activateNextReadyContext/Thread() functions
-To support this a "readyList" of thread ids is added
-After a cache miss, thread will suspend and then call
activitynextreadythread
allow for events to schedule themselves later if desired. this is important
because of cases like where you need to activate a thread only after the previous
thread has been deactivated. The ordering there has to be enforced
add code to recognize memory stalls in resources and the pipeline as well
as squash a thread if there is a stall and we are in the switch on cache miss
model
TLBUnit no longer used and we also get rid of memAccSize and memAccFlags functions added to ISA and StaticInst
since TLB is not a separate resource to acquire. Instead, TLB access is done before any read/write to memory
and the result is checked before it's sent out to memory.
* * *
Edit AlphaISA to support the inorder model. Mostly alternate constructor functions and also a few skeleton multithreaded support functions
* * *
Remove namespace from header file. Causes compiler issues that are hard to find
* * *
Separate the TLB from the CPU and allow it to live in the TLBUnit resource. Give CPU accessor functions for access and also bind at construction time
* * *
Expose memory access size and flags through instruction object
(temporarily memAccSize and memFlags to get TLB stuff working.)
For some reason o3 FS init() only called initCPU if the thread state
was Suspended, which was no longer the case. There's no apparent
reason to check, so I whacked the test completely rather than
changing the check to Halted.
The inorder init() was also updated to be symmetric, though the
previous code was just a fancy no-op.
This provides a common initial status for all threads independent
of CPU model (unlike the prior situation where CPUs initialized
threads to inconsistent states).
This mostly matters for SE mode; in FS mode, ISA-specific startupCPU()
methods generally handle boot-time initialization of thread contexts
(since the right thing to do is ISA-dependent).
This model currently only works in MIPS_SE mode, so it will take some effort
to clean it up and make it generally useful. Hopefully people are willing to
help make that happen!
