Difference between revisions of "InOrder"

Revision as of 09:37, 28 October 2009

This page provides a general overview of the InOrderCPU model, its pipeline stages, and its resources. We'll continue to update this page in more detail as the inorder core starts to make it way from the "m5-dev" to the "m5-stable" repositories.

• Soumyaroop Roy has been kind enough to provide a "test-status-page" of the M5-Inorder model in the work he has been doing.

(Note: The latest versions of the inorder model can be found in the m5-dev repository. Please check there for updates and additional information.)

• InOrder CPU FAQ - As more questions are received, we'll start to put to frequent answers here...

The relevant sources files are in src/cpu/inorder.

Pipeline Stages

In it's most basic incarnation, the In-Order model models a 5-stage pipeline.

The 5-stage pipeline is based on the 5-stage MIPS pipeline and has the following stages:

• Instruction Fetch (IF)
• Instruction Decode (ID)
• Execute (EX)
• Memory Access (MEM)
• Register Write Back (WB)

Relevant source files:

• first_stage.[hh,cc]
• pipeline_stage.[hh,cc]

Pipeline Resources

The following pipeline resources are defined for InOrderCPU:

• Fetch Unit
• Instruction Cache (I-Cache)
• Branch Prediction Unit (BPred Unit)
• Register File Manager (RF Manager)
• Address Generation Unit (AGen Unit)
• Execution Unit (EXU)
• Integer Multiply and Divide Unit (Int MDU)
• Data Cache (D-Cache)
• Graduation Unit (Grad Unit)

Relevant source files:

• resources/*.[hh,cc]

Resource Pool

@TODO

Pipeline Definition

@TODO

Instruction Schedules

Instruction scheduling is divided into a front-end schedule (IF and ID), which is uniform for all the instructions, and a back-end schedule, which varies across the different instructions.

• Front-end Schedule
  • The front-end schedule comprises of the IF and ID stages
    • IF
      • NPC is updated by the Fetch unit
      • Instruction fetch from the I-Cache is initiated
    • ID
      • Instruction fetch is completed by I-Cache
      • Instruction decode is performed by the Decode unit
      • Branch prediction is performed by the BPred unit
      • Target PC is updated by the Fetch unit

• Back-end Schedule
  • The back-end schedule comprises of the ID, EX, MEM, and WB stages
    • ID
      • For non-store instructions, the source registers, if any, are read by the RF Manager
      • For load instructions, address generation is performed by the AGEN unit and data read from the D-Cache is initiated
      • The rest of the instructions are executed in the execution units
        • Single cycle operations are sent to the integer EXU
        • Execution is initiated for the multicycle/pipelined operations
    • EX
      • Execution is finished for the multicycle/pipelined operations
      • For load instructions, data read from the D-Cache is completed
      • For store instructions, the following tasks are performed
        • The source registers are read by the RF manager
        • Address generation is performed by the AGen unit
        • Data write into the D-Cache is initiated
    • MEM
      • For store instructions, data write into the D-Cache is completed
    • WB
      • Destination registers are written into by the RF manager
      • The instruction is graduated by the Grad unit

Relevant source files:

• pipeline_traits.[cc,hh]