VLIW instruction scheduling for minimal power variation

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the minimization of the variation in power consumed by a VLIW processor during the execution of a target program through instruction scheduling. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer program (MIP) and a problem-specific branch-and-bound algorithm has been developed to solve it more efficiently than generic MIP solvers. Simulation results based on the TMS320C6711 VLIW digital signal processor using benchmarks from Mediabench and Trimaran showed that over 40% average reduction in power variation can be achieved without sacrificing execution speed of these benchmarks. Computational requirements and convergence rates of our algorithm are also analyzed.