The CBP Parameter: A Module Characterization Approach for DSP Software Optimization

摘要

Memory consumption is an important metric for DSP software implementation. In this paper, we develop amodule characterization technique that promotes more economical use of memory resources at the system level. Our work is developed in the context of software synthesis from signal/video/image processing applications expressed as synchronous dataflow (SDF) graphs. SDF is a restricted form of dataflow where each computational module (actor) consumes and produces a fixed number of data values (tokens) on each execution. Usually, no assumption is made about when during the execution of an actor, the tokens are actually consumed and produced; the firing of an actor is treated as an atomic event for most purposes. However, we show in this paper that it is possible to concisely and precisely capture key properties pertaining to the relative times at which tokens are produced and consumed by an actor. We show this by introducing the consumed-before-produced (CBP) parameter, which provides a general method for characterizing the token transfer of an SDF actor. Good bounds on the CBP parameter can aid an SDF compiler in performing more aggressive optimizations for reducing buffer sizes on the edges between actors. We formally define the CBP parameter; derive some useful properties of this parameter; illustrate how the value of the parameter is derived by examining in detail the multirate FIR filter, which is a fundamental actor in multirate signal processing applications; and examine CBP parameterizations for several other practical SDF actors.