Swarm-inspired exploration of architecture and unrolling factors for nested-loop-based application in architectural synthesis

Abstract

A novel framework for automated design space exploration (DSE) of architecture and unrolling factor (UF) for perfectly nested loops in architectural synthesis (AS) is presented. The sub-contributions are that it: (a) proposes a novel model for determining execution time based on architecture and UFs for nested loop without tiresomely unrolling completely; (b) proposes a novel methodology for exploration of architecture and loop UFs for a perfectly nested loop, based on swarm intelligence (SI); and (c) maintains a trade-off between power and performance during exploration and also resolves orthogonal issues such as exploration speed and quality of result (QoR). Results of the proposed approach indicate an average improvement in QoR of >33% and reduction in runtime of >34% compared with recent approaches. © 2015 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.