Variation-aware thermal characterization and management of multi-core architectures

The accuracy and efficiency of dynamic power and thermal management are both affected by the increased levels of on-chip variation, mainly because dynamic thermal management schemes are oblivious to the variation characteristics of the underlying hardware. We propose a technique that utilizes the existing on-chip sensor infrastructure to improve the inherent thermal imbalances among different cores in a multi-core architecture. Thermal sensor readings are compiled to generate an on-chip variation map, which is provided to the system power/thermal management to effectively manage the existing on-chip variation. Experimental analysis based on live measurements on a special test-chip shows reduced on-chip heating with no performance loss, which improves the power/thermal efficiency of the chip at no cost.