Hardware Support for Arbitrarily Complex Loop Structures in Embedded Applications

TL;DR

This paper introduces a zero-overhead loop controller (ZOLC) for embedded RISC processors that supports complex loop structures, significantly improving performance by up to 48.2%.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel ZOLC design enabling arbitrary loop structures with multiple entries and exits, enhancing embedded processor efficiency.

Findings

Speed improvements of 8.4% to 48.2% on benchmarks

ZOLC supports complex loop control structures

Enhanced processor performance with minimal overhead

Abstract

In this paper, the program control unit of an embedded RISC processor is enhanced with a novel zero-overhead loop controller (ZOLC) supporting arbitrary loop structures with multiple-entry/exit nodes. The ZOLC has been incorporated to an open RISC processor core to evaluate the performance of the proposed unit for alternative configurations of the selected processor. It is proven that speed improvements of 8.4% to 48.2% are feasible for the used benchmarks.