Compiler based exploration of DSP energy savings by SIMD operations

The growing use of digital signal processors (DSPs) in embedded systems necessitates the use of optimizing compilers supporting their special architecture features. Beside the irregular DSP architectures for reducing chip size and energy consumption, single instruction multiple data (SIMD) functionality is frequently integrated with the intention of performance improvement. In order to get an energy-efficient system consisting of processor and compiler, it is necessary to optimize hardware as well as software. It is not obvious that SIMD operations can save any energy: if n operations are executed in parallel, each of them might consume the same amount of energy as if there were executed sequentially. Up to now, no work has been done to investigate the influence of compiler generated code containing SIMD operations w.r.t. the energy consumption. This paper deals with the exploration of the energy saving potential of SIMD operations for a DSP by using a generic compilation framework including an integrated instruction level energy cost model for our target architecture. Effects of SIMD operations on the energy consumption are shown for several benchmarks and an MP3 application´.