On Allocation Algorithms for Manycore Systems With Network on Chip

Abstract

Single-chip multicore processors and their network on chip interconnection mechanisms have received extensive interest since the early 2000s. The mesh topology is popular in networks on chip. A common issue in mesh is that it can result in high energy consumption and chip temperatures. It has been recently shown that mapping communicating tasks to neighboring cores can reduce communication delays and the associated power consumption and improve throughput. This paper evaluates the contiguous allocation strategy first fit and non-contiguous allocation strategies that attempt to achieve a degree of contiguity among the cores allocated to a job. One of the non-contiguous strategies is a new strategy, referred to as neighbor allocation strategy, which decomposes the job request so that it can be accommodated by free core submeshes and individual cores that have degree of contiguity. The results show that the relative merits of the policies depend on the job's communication pattern.