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EUC
2008
Springer

Reducing Context Switch Overhead with Compiler-Assisted Threading

13 years 5 months ago
Reducing Context Switch Overhead with Compiler-Assisted Threading
Multithreading is an important software modularization technique. However, it can incur substantial overheads, especially in processors where the amount of architecturally visible state is large. We propose an implementation technique for cooperative multithreading, where context switches occur in places that minimize the amount of state that needs to be saved. The subset of processor state saved during each context switch is based on where the switch occurs. We have validated the approach by an empirical study of resource usage in basic blocks, and by implementing the co-operative threading in our compiler. Performance figures are given for an MP3 player utilizing the threading implementation.
Pekka Jääskeläinen, Pertti Kellom&a
Added 19 Oct 2010
Updated 19 Oct 2010
Type Conference
Year 2008
Where EUC
Authors Pekka Jääskeläinen, Pertti Kellomäki, Jarmo Takala, Heikki Kultala, Mikael Lepistö
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