Value Compression for Efficient Computation

A processor’s energy consumption can be reduced by compressing values (data and addresses) that flow through a processor pipeline and gating off portions of data path elements that would otherwise be used for computing non-significant bits. An approach for compressing all values running through a processor is proposed and evaluated. For the SpecInt2000 benchmarks the best compression method achieves energy savings of more than 20 percent and a peak power reduction of 18 percent.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: EUROPAR
• Authors: Ramon Canal, Antonio González, James E. Smith
• Keywords: Data Path Elements, EUROPAR 2005, Processor Pipeline, Processor’s Energy Consumption