Title :
Improving code density using compression techniques
Author :
Lefurgy, Charles ; Bird, Peter ; Chen, I-Cheng ; Mudge, Trevor
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Abstract :
Proposes a method for compressing programs in embedded processors where the instruction memory size dominates the cost. A post-compilation analyzer examines a program and replaces common sequences of instructions with a single instruction codeword. A microprocessor executes the compressed instruction sequences by fetching codewords from the instruction memory, expanding them back to the original sequence of instructions in the decode stage, and issuing them to the execution stages. We apply our technique to the PowerPC, ARM and i386 instruction sets and achieve an average size reduction of 39%, 34% and 26%, respectively, for SPEC CINT95 programs
Keywords :
computer architecture; decoding; instruction sets; source coding; ARM instruction set; PowerPC instruction set; SPEC CINT95 programs; code density; common instruction sequences; compressed instruction sequences; cost; decoding stage; embedded processors; execution stages; i386 instruction set; instruction codeword fetching; instruction memory size; microprocessor; post-compilation analyser; program compression techniques; size reduction; Bandwidth; Birds; Circuits; Costs; Decoding; Embedded system; Encoding; Instruction sets; Microprocessors; Statistics;
Conference_Titel :
Microarchitecture, 1997. Proceedings., Thirtieth Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Research Triangle Park, NC
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-7977-8
DOI :
10.1109/MICRO.1997.645810
