Generalized Methods for Application Specific Hardware Specialization
Generalized methods for application specific hardware specialization by Snehasish Kumar M. Sc., Simon Fraser University, 2013 B. Tech., Biju Patnaik University of Technology, 2010 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Computing Science Faculty of Applied Sciences c Snehasish Kumar 2017 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2017 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced without authorization under the conditions for “Fair Dealing.” Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, education, satire, parody, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. Approval Name: Snehasish Kumar Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Computing Science) Title: Generalized methods for application specific hardware specialization Examining Committee: Chair: Binay Bhattacharyya Professor Arrvindh Shriraman Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Simon Fraser University William Sumner Supervisor Assistant Professor Simon Fraser University Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan Supervisor Research Staff Member, IBM Research Alexandra Fedorova Supervisor Associate Professor University of British Columbia Richard Vaughan Internal Examiner Associate Professor Simon Fraser University Andreas Moshovos External Examiner Professor University of Toronto Date Defended: November 21, 2016 ii Abstract Since the invention of the microprocessor in 1971, the computational capacity of the microprocessor has scaled over 1000× with Moore and Dennard scaling. Dennard scaling ended with a rapid increase in leakage power 30 years after it was proposed. This ushered in the era of multiprocessing where additional transistors afforded by Moore’s scaling were put to use. With the scaling of computational capacity no longer guaranteed every generation, application specific hardware specialization is an attractive alternative to sustain scaling trends.
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