Localization and Analysis of Code Paths Suitable for Acceleration using Approximate Computing - Lass, Michael; Plessl, Christian (Paderborn University, 2015)
Demands for computational power and energy efficiency of computing devices are steadily increasing. At the same time, following classic methods to increase speed and reduce energy consumption of these devices becomes increasingly difficult, bringing alternative methods into focus. One of these methods is approximate computing which utilizes the fact that small errors in computations are acceptable in many applications in order to allow acceleration of these computations or to increase energy efficiency. This thesis develops elements of a workflow that can be followed to apply approximate computing to existing applications. It proposes a novel heuristic approach to the localization of code paths that are suitable to approximate computing based on findings in recent research. Additionally, an approach to identification of approximable instructions within these code paths is proposed and used to implement simulation of approximation. The parts of the workflow are implemented with the goal to lay the foundation for a partly automated toolflow. Evaluation of the developed techniques shows that the proposed methods can help providing a convenient workflow, facilitating the first steps into the application of approximate computing.
Keywords: thesis