Chapter 1
Computer Abstractions
and Technology
Progress in computer technology
Makes novel applications feasible
Underpinned by Moores Law
Computers in automobiles
Cell phones
Human genome project
World Wide Web
Search Engines
Computers are pervasive
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.1 Introduction
The Computer Revolution
Classes of Computers
Desktop computers
Server computers
General purpose, variety of software
Subject to cost/performance tradeoff
Network based
High capacity, performance, reliability
Range from small servers to building sized
Embedded computers
Hidden as components of systems
Stringent power/performance/cost constraints
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
The Processor Market
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
What You Will Learn
How programs are translated into the
machine language
The hardware/software interface
What determines program performance
And how the hardware executes them
And how it can be improved
How hardware designers improve
performance
What is parallel processing
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Understanding Performance
Algorithm
Programming language, compiler, architecture
Determine number of machine instructions executed
per operation
Processor and memory system
Determines number of operations executed
Determine how fast instructions are executed
I/O system (including OS)
Determines how fast I/O operations are executed
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Application software
Written in high-level language
System software
Compiler: translates HLL code to
machine code
Operating System: service code
Handling input/output
Managing memory and storage
Scheduling tasks & sharing resources
Hardware
Processor, memory, I/O controllers
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.2 Below Your Program
Below Your Program
Levels of Program Code
High-level language
Assembly language
Level of abstraction closer
to problem domain
Provides for productivity
and portability
Textual representation of
instructions
Hardware representation
Binary digits (bits)
Encoded instructions and
data
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
The BIG Picture
Same components for
all kinds of computer
Desktop, server,
embedded
Input/output includes
User-interface devices
Storage devices
Display, keyboard, mouse
Hard disk, CD/DVD, flash
Network adapters
For communicating with
other computers
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.3 Under the Covers
Components of a Computer
Anatomy of a Computer
Output
device
Network
cable
Input
device
Input
device
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Anatomy of a Mouse
Optical mouse
LED illuminates
desktop
Small low-res camera
Basic image processor
Looks for x, y
movement
Buttons & wheel
Supersedes roller-ball
mechanical mouse
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Through the Looking Glass
LCD screen: picture elements (pixels)
Mirrors content of frame buffer memory
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Opening the Box
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Inside the Processor (CPU)
Datapath: performs operations on data
Control: sequences datapath, memory, ...
Cache memory
Small fast SRAM memory for immediate
access to data
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Inside the Processor
AMD Barcelona: 4 processor cores
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Abstractions
The BIG Picture
Abstraction helps us deal with complexity
Instruction set architecture (ISA)
The hardware/software interface
Application binary interface
Hide lower-level detail
The ISA plus system software interface
Implementation
The details underlying and interface
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
A Safe Place for Data
Volatile main memory
Loses instructions and data when power off
Non-volatile secondary memory
Magnetic disk
Flash memory
Optical disk (CDROM, DVD)
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Networks
Communication and resource sharing
Local area network (LAN): Ethernet
Within a building
Wide area network (WAN: the Internet
Wireless network: WiFi, Bluetooth
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Technology Trends
Electronics
technology
continues to evolve
Increased capacity
and performance
Reduced cost
Year
Technology
1951
Vacuum tube
1965
Transistor
1975
Integrated circuit (IC)
1995
Very large scale IC (VLSI)
2005
Ultra large scale IC
DRAM capacity
Relative performance/cost
1
35
900
2,400,000
6,200,000,000
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Which airplane has the best performance?
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.4 Performance
Defining Performance
Response Time and Throughput
Response time
How long it takes to do a task
Throughput
Total work done per unit time
How are response time and throughput affected
by
e.g., tasks/transactions/ per hour
Replacing the processor with a faster version?
Adding more processors?
Well focus on response time for now
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Relative Performance
Define Performance = 1/Execution Time
X is n time faster than Y
Performanc e X Performanc e Y
Execution time Y Execution time X n
Example: time taken to run a program
10s on A, 15s on B
Execution TimeB / Execution TimeA
= 15s / 10s = 1.5
So A is 1.5 times faster than B
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Measuring Execution Time
Elapsed time
Total response time, including all aspects
Processing, I/O, OS overhead, idle time
Determines system performance
CPU time
Time spent processing a given job
Discounts I/O time, other jobs shares
Comprises user CPU time and system CPU
time
Different programs are affected differently by
CPU and system performance
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CPU Clocking
Operation of digital hardware governed by a
constant-rate clock
Clock period
Clock (cycles)
Data transfer
and computation
Update state
Clock period: duration of a clock cycle
e.g., 250ps = 0.25ns = 2501012s
Clock frequency (rate): cycles per second
e.g., 4.0GHz = 4000MHz = 4.0109Hz
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CPU Time
CPU Time CPU Clock Cycles Clock Cycle Time
CPU Clock Cycles
Clock Rate
Performance improved by
Reducing number of clock cycles
Increasing clock rate
Hardware designer must often trade off clock
rate against cycle count
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CPU Time Example
Computer A: 2GHz clock, 10s CPU time
Designing Computer B
Aim for 6s CPU time
Can do faster clock, but causes 1.2 clock cycles
How fast must Computer B clock be?
Clock CyclesB 1.2 Clock Cycles A
Clock RateB
CPU Time B
6s
Clock Cycles A CPU Time A Clock Rate A
10s 2GHz 20 10 9
1.2 20 10 9 24 10 9
Clock RateB
4GHz
6s
6s
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Instruction Count and CPI
Clock Cycles Instruction Count Cycles per Instruction
CPU Time Instruction Count CPI Clock Cycle Time
Instruction Count CPI
Clock Rate
Instruction Count for a program
Determined by program, ISA and compiler
Average cycles per instruction
Determined by CPU hardware
If different instructions have different CPI
Average CPI affected by instruction mix
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CPI Example
Computer A: Cycle Time = 250ps, CPI = 2.0
Computer B: Cycle Time = 500ps, CPI = 1.2
Same ISA
Which is faster, and by how much?
CPU Time
CPU Time
Instruction Count CPI Cycle Time
A
A
I 2.0 250ps I 500ps
A is faster
Instruction Count CPI Cycle Time
B
B
I 1.2 500ps I 600ps
CPU Time
B I 600ps 1.2
CPU Time
I 500ps
A
by this much
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CPI in More Detail
If different instruction classes take different
numbers of cycles
n
Clock Cycles (CPIi Instruction Count i )
i1
Weighted average CPI
n
Clock Cycles
Instruction Count i
CPI
CPIi
Instruction Count i1
Instruction Count
Relative frequency
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CPI Example
Alternative compiled code sequences using
instructions in classes A, B, C
Class
CPI for class
IC in sequence 1
IC in sequence 2
Sequence 1: IC = 5
Clock Cycles
= 21 + 12 + 23
= 10
Avg. CPI = 10/5 = 2.0
Sequence 2: IC = 6
Clock Cycles
= 41 + 12 + 13
=9
Avg. CPI = 9/6 = 1.5
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Performance Summary
The BIG Picture
Instructions Clock cycles Seconds
CPU Time
Program
Instruction Clock cycle
Performance depends on
Algorithm: affects IC, possibly CPI
Programming language: affects IC, CPI
Compiler: affects IC, CPI
Instruction set architecture: affects IC, CPI, Tc
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.5 The Power Wall
Power Trends
In CMOS IC technology
Power Capacitive load Voltage 2 Frequency
30
5V 1V
1000
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Reducing Power
Suppose a new CPU has
85% of capacitive load of old CPU
15% voltage and 15% frequency reduction
Pnew Cold 0.85 (Vold 0.85)2 Fold 0.85
4
0.85
0.52
2
Pold
Cold Vold Fold
The power wall
We cant reduce voltage further
We cant remove more heat
How else can we improve performance?
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Constrained by power, instruction-level parallelism,
memory latency
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.6 The Sea Change: The Switch to Multiprocessors
Uniprocessor Performance
Multiprocessors
Multicore microprocessors
More than one processor per chip
Requires explicitly parallel programming
Compare with instruction level parallelism
Hardware executes multiple instructions at once
Hidden from the programmer
Hard to do
Programming for performance
Load balancing
Optimizing communication and synchronization
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Yield: proportion of working dies per wafer
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.7 Real Stuff: The AMD Opteron X4
Manufacturing ICs
AMD Opteron X2 Wafer
X2: 300mm wafer, 117 chips, 90nm technology
X4: 45nm technology
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Integrated Circuit Cost
Cost per wafer
Cost per die
Dies per wafer Yield
Dies per wafer Wafer area Die area
1
Yield
(1 (Defects per area Die area/2))2
Nonlinear relation to area and defect rate
Wafer cost and area are fixed
Defect rate determined by manufacturing process
Die area determined by architecture and circuit design
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
SPEC CPU Benchmark
Programs used to measure performance
Standard Performance Evaluation Corp (SPEC)
Supposedly typical of actual workload
Develops benchmarks for CPU, I/O, Web,
SPEC CPU2006
Elapsed time to execute a selection of programs
Negligible I/O, so focuses on CPU performance
Normalize relative to reference machine
Summarize as geometric mean of performance ratios
CINT2006 (integer) and CFP2006 (floating-point)
n
Execution time ratio
i 1
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
CINT2006 for Opteron X4 2356
Name
Description
IC109
CPI
Tc (ns)
Exec time
Ref time
SPECratio
perl
Interpreted string processing
2,118
0.75
0.40
637
9,777
15.3
bzip2
Block-sorting compression
2,389
0.85
0.40
817
9,650
11.8
gcc
GNU C Compiler
1,050
1.72
0.47
24
8,050
11.1
mcf
Combinatorial optimization
336
10.00
0.40
1,345
9,120
6.8
go
Go game (AI)
1,658
1.09
0.40
721
10,490
14.6
hmmer
Search gene sequence
2,783
0.80
0.40
890
9,330
10.5
sjeng
Chess game (AI)
2,176
0.96
0.48
37
12,100
14.5
libquantum
Quantum computer simulation
1,623
1.61
0.40
1,047
20,720
19.8
h264avc
Video compression
3,102
0.80
0.40
993
22,130
22.3
omnetpp
Discrete event simulation
587
2.94
0.40
690
6,250
9.1
astar
Games/path finding
1,082
1.79
0.40
773
7,020
9.1
xalancbmk
XML parsing
1,058
2.70
0.40
1,143
6,900
6.0
Geometric mean
11.7
High cache miss rates
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
SPEC Power Benchmark
Power consumption of server at different
workload levels
Performance: ssj_ops/sec
Power: Watts (Joules/sec)
Overall ssj_ops per Watt
10
ssj_ops
i0
10
power
i0
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
SPECpower_ssj2008 for X4
Target Load %
Performance (ssj_ops/sec)
Average Power (Watts)
100%
231,867
295
90%
211,282
286
80%
185,803
275
70%
163,427
265
60%
140,160
256
50%
118,324
246
40%
920,35
233
30%
70,500
222
20%
47,126
206
10%
23,066
180
0%
141
1,283,590
2,605
Overall sum
ssj_ops/ power
493
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Improving an aspect of a computer and
expecting a proportional improvement in
overall performance
Timproved
Example: multiply accounts for 80s/100s
Taffected
Tunaffected
improvemen t factor
How much improvement in multiply performance to
get 5 overall?
80
Cant be done!
20
20
n
Corollary: make the common case fast
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.8 Fallacies and Pitfalls
Pitfall: Amdahls Law
Fallacy: Low Power at Idle
Look back at X4 power benchmark
Google data center
At 100% load: 295W
At 50% load: 246W (83%)
At 10% load: 180W (61%)
Mostly operates at 10% 50% load
At 100% load less than 1% of the time
Consider designing processors to make
power proportional to load
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Pitfall: MIPS as a Performance Metric
MIPS: Millions of Instructions Per Second
Doesnt account for
Differences in ISAs between computers
Differences in complexity between instructions
Instruction count
MIPS
Execution time 10 6
Instruction count
Clock rate
6
Instruction count CPI
CPI
10
6
10
Clock rate
CPI varies between programs on a given CPU
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
Cost/performance is improving
Hierarchical layers of abstraction
In both hardware and software
Instruction set architecture
Due to underlying technology development
The hardware/software interface
Execution time: the best performance
measure
Power is a limiting factor
Use parallelism to improve performance
Chapter 1 Computer Abstractions and Technology
1.9 Concluding Remarks
Concluding Remarks
