A Broadcast-Enabled Sensing System for Embedded Multi-core Processors

Contemporary multi-core architectures deployed in embedded systems are expected to function near the operational limits of temperature, voltage, and device wear-out. To date, most on-chip sensing systems have been designed to collect and use sensor information for these parameters locally. In this paper, a new sensing system to enhance multi-core dependability which supports both the local and global distribution of sensing data in embedded processors is considered. The benefit of the new sensing architecture is verified using the broadcast of microarchitectural parameter signatures which can be used to identify impending voltage droops. Low-latency broadcasts are supported for a range of sensor data transfer rates. Up to a 9% performance improvement for a 16-core system is determined via the use of the distributed voltage droop sensor information (5.4% on average). The entire sensing system, including broadcasting resources, requires about 2.6% of multi-core area.