A network flow approach to memory bandwidth utilization in embedded DSP core processors

This paper presents a network flow approach to solving the register binding and allocation problem for multiword memory access DSP processors. In recently announced DSP processors, 16-bit instructions which simultaneously access four words from memory are supported. A polynomial-time network flow methodology is used to allocate multiword accesses, including constant data-memory layout, while minimizing code size. Results show that improvements of up to 87% in terms of memory bandwidth are obtained compared to compiler-generated DSP code. This research is important for industry since this value-added technique can improve code size and utilize higher-memory bandwidths without increasing cost.