OpenCL code generation for low energy wide SIMD architectures with explicit datapath

Abstract

Energy efficiency is one of the most important aspects in designing embedded processors. The use of a wide SIMD processor architecture is a promising approach to build energy-efficient high performance embedded processors. In this paper, we propose a configurable wide SIMD architecture that utilizes explicit datapath to achieve high energy efficiency. To efficiently program the proposed architecture with a standard parallel programming language, we introduce a tool flow that can compile and map OpenCL programs onto it. The compiler in the proposed tool flow is able to analyze the static access patterns in OpenCL kernels and generate efficient mapping and code that utilizes the explicit datapath. Experimental results show that the proposed architecture is efficient. In a 128-PE processor, the proposed architecture is able to achieve over 200 times speed-up and reduce the energy consumption of register file and memory by over 90% compared to a RISC processor.