Title :
Shifting register windows
Author :
Russell, Gordon ; Shaw, Paul
Author_Institution :
Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, UK
Abstract :
Shifting register windows, a register windowing method that attempts to overcome some of the difficulties of traditional fixed- and variable-sized schemes, is described. Using fewer register elements than a seven-window Sparc organization, shifting register windows more than halves spill/refill memory traffic and reduces visible spill/refill cycles by an order of magnitude. In addition, shifting register windows, a scheme based on fast hardware stack and register-memory dribbling, has a very short register bus length. It also zeros registers as they are being allocated, making common initialization unnecessary.<>
Keywords :
computer architecture; fast hardware stack; memory traffic; register windowing method; register-memory dribbling; shifting register windows; Algorithms; Computer architecture; Counting circuits; Hardware; Joining processes; Reduced instruction set computing; Registers; Software maintenance;
Journal_Title :
Micro, IEEE