Workload characterization: A key aspect of microarchitecture design

摘要

In this message, I want to highlight the issue of workload characterization in the modern setting. Understanding the target workloads - from the perspective of performance, power, temperature, and even reliability - is an essential element of the overall design process. This is especially true at the early stages of microarchitecture definition. Note, first of all, the emphasis on the qualifier "target." It is crucial for a design team to understand the application space of the product during the project's early stages. This is, admittedly, often a big problem because understanding the future user applications at the early stage is difficult. In the general-purpose microprocessor design space, a team might limit the benchmark suite to, say, SPEC 2000, only to see after chip tape-out that the very latest announced SPEC suite is quite different. Scaling today's workloads to anticipate the requirements of tomorrow's customers is a challenge; but this is an aspect that the team should definitely try to factor into its overall methodology.