Programming model for a heterogeneous x86 platform

ABSTRACT

The client computing platform is moving towards a heterogeneous architecture consisting of a combination of cores focused on scalar performance, and a set of throughput-oriented cores. The throughput oriented cores (e.g. a GPU) may be connected over both coherent and non-coherent interconnects, and have different ISAs. This paper describes a programming model for such heterogeneous platforms. We discuss the language constructs, runtime implementation, and the memory model for such a programming environment. We implemented this programming environment in a x86 heterogeneous platform simulator. We ported a number of workloads to our programming environment, and present the performance of our programming environment on these workloads.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Concurrent programming structures

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Patterns; Data types and structures

General Terms:
Design, Languages, Performance

Keywords:
heterogeneous platforms, programming model