A study of slipstream processors

A slipstream processor reduces the length of a running program by dynamically skipping computation non-essential for correct forward progress. The shortened program runs faster as a result, but it is speculative. So a second, unreduced copy of the program is run concurrently with and slightly behind the reduced copy — leveraging a chip multiprocessor (CMP) or simultaneous multithreading (SMT). The short program passes its control and data flow outcomes to the full program for checking. And as it checks the short program, the full program fetches and executes more efficiently due to having an accurate picture of the future. Both programs are sped up: combined, they outperform conventional non-redundant execution. We study slipstreaming with the following key results.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: MICRO
• Authors: Zachary Purser, Karthik Sundaramoorthy, Eric Rotenberg
• Keywords: Correct Forward Progress, Hardware, MICRO 2000, Short Program, Shortened Program