Robert Ralph Roediger

SPAID: software prefetching in pointer- and call-intensive environments

Lack of object code compatibility in VLIW architectures is a severe limit to their adoption as a general-purpose computing paradigm. Previous approaches include hardware and software techniques, both of which have drawbacks. Hardware techniques add to the complexity of the architecture, whereas software techniques require multiple executables. This paper presents a technique called dynamic rescheduling that applies software techniques dynamically, using intervention by the operating system. Results are presented to demonstrate the viability of the technique using the Illinois IMPACT compiler and the TINKER architectural framework.