Implementation-aware selection of the custom instruction set for extensible processors

This paper presents an approach for incorporating the effect of various logic synthesis options and logic level implementations into the custom instruction (CI) selection for extensible processors. This effect translates into the availability of a piecewise continuous spectrum of delay versus area choices for each CI, which in turn influences the selection of the CI set that maximizes the speedup per area cost (SPA) metric. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated by applying it to several benchmarks and comparing the results with those of a conventional technique. We also apply the methodology to the existing serialization algorithms aimed at relaxing register file constraints in multi-cycle custom instruction design. The comparison shows considerable improvements in the speedup per area compared to the custom instruction selection algorithms under the same area-budget constraint.