Trebuchet : exploring TLP with dataflow virtualisation. (31st May 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alves, Tiago A.O.; Marzulo, Leandro A.J.; França, Felipe M.G.; Costa, Vítor Santos
• Is Part Of: International journal of high performance systems architecture. Volume 3:Number 2/3(2011)
• Page Start: 137
• Page End: 148
• Publication Date: 2011-05-31
• Subjects: dataflow architectures -- parallel programming -- computer architecture; Computer architecture -- Periodicals; Computer systems -- Periodicals; High performance computing -- Periodicals; 004.205
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-6528

Abstract

Parallel programming has become mandatory to fully exploit the potential of multi-core CPUs. The dataflow model provides a natural way to exploit parallelism. However, specifying dependences and control using fine-grained instructions in dataflow programs can be complex and present unwanted overheads. To address this issue, we have designed TALM: a coarse-grained dataflow execution model to be used on top of widespread architectures. We implemented TALM as the Trebuchet virtual machine for multi-cores. The programmer identifies code blocks that can run in parallel and connects them to form a dataflow graph, which allows one to have the benefits of parallel dataflow execution in a Von Neumann machine, with small programming effort. We parallelised a set of seven applications using our approach and compared with OpenMP implementations. Results show that Trebuchet can be competitive with state-of-the-art technology, while providing the benefits of dataflow execution.