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Fused: closed-loop performance and energy simulation of embedded systems

Fused: closed-loop performance and energy simulation of embedded systems
Fused: closed-loop performance and energy simulation of embedded systems
Energy-driven computing is an emerging paradigm that aims to fuel the proliferation of tiny and low-cost IoT sensing and monitoring devices. Energy-driven computers are generally powered by energy harvesting sources, and adapt their operation at runtime according to energy availability; thus, they must be designed and tested according to the expected dynamics of their power source. However, today’s processor simulators and debuggers typically assume that power is always available, so they are unable to correctly model the interactions between power supply, power consumption and energy-driven execution. To address this shortcoming, we propose Fused, an open source full-system simulator for energy-driven computers. Fused models execution, power consumption, and power supply in a closed loop, thus correctly models the interaction between them. It targets energy-driven embedded systems, and employs SystemC for digital and mixed-signal simulation to model a microcontroller and mixed-signal circuitry, enabling hardware-software codesign and design space exploration. Fused includes a high-level power modelling methodology, whereby events recorded during simulation are correlated to power measurements of real hardware to extract features for power modelling. Results show that Fused can model the execution time and power consumption of a commercially available microcontroller with a geometric mean error of 0.2% and 3.4% respectively, across a wide range of workloads. Through a case-study, we demonstrate that Fused can accurately model a state-of-the art intermittent computing system, where execution is heavily dependent on energy availability: although up to 70 power cycles were needed to complete the tested workload on the constrained energy supply, Fused modelled the completion time with less than 7% error.
Virtual prototyping, SystemC, Embedded Systems, GPU Power, NVML, PTX, PAPI
110-112
Sliper, Sivert T.
73303db3-fb3d-4434-973b-3def05837e7f
Wang, William
ff81a455-8a66-49db-82f2-849bc6dc2c51
Nikoleris, Nikos
be54f3c1-c36e-4dde-8611-0af54b56e033
Weddell, Alexander
3d8c4d63-19b1-4072-a779-84d487fd6f03
Merrett, Geoff
89b3a696-41de-44c3-89aa-b0aa29f54020
Sliper, Sivert T.
73303db3-fb3d-4434-973b-3def05837e7f
Wang, William
ff81a455-8a66-49db-82f2-849bc6dc2c51
Nikoleris, Nikos
be54f3c1-c36e-4dde-8611-0af54b56e033
Weddell, Alexander
3d8c4d63-19b1-4072-a779-84d487fd6f03
Merrett, Geoff
89b3a696-41de-44c3-89aa-b0aa29f54020

Sliper, Sivert T., Wang, William, Nikoleris, Nikos, Weddell, Alexander and Merrett, Geoff (2020) Fused: closed-loop performance and energy simulation of embedded systems. 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS), , Boston, United States. 23 - 25 Aug 2020. pp. 110-112 . (doi:10.1109/ISPASS48437.2020.00046).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Energy-driven computing is an emerging paradigm that aims to fuel the proliferation of tiny and low-cost IoT sensing and monitoring devices. Energy-driven computers are generally powered by energy harvesting sources, and adapt their operation at runtime according to energy availability; thus, they must be designed and tested according to the expected dynamics of their power source. However, today’s processor simulators and debuggers typically assume that power is always available, so they are unable to correctly model the interactions between power supply, power consumption and energy-driven execution. To address this shortcoming, we propose Fused, an open source full-system simulator for energy-driven computers. Fused models execution, power consumption, and power supply in a closed loop, thus correctly models the interaction between them. It targets energy-driven embedded systems, and employs SystemC for digital and mixed-signal simulation to model a microcontroller and mixed-signal circuitry, enabling hardware-software codesign and design space exploration. Fused includes a high-level power modelling methodology, whereby events recorded during simulation are correlated to power measurements of real hardware to extract features for power modelling. Results show that Fused can model the execution time and power consumption of a commercially available microcontroller with a geometric mean error of 0.2% and 3.4% respectively, across a wide range of workloads. Through a case-study, we demonstrate that Fused can accurately model a state-of-the art intermittent computing system, where execution is heavily dependent on energy availability: although up to 70 power cycles were needed to complete the tested workload on the constrained energy supply, Fused modelled the completion time with less than 7% error.

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Accepted/In Press date: 14 January 2020
Published date: 23 August 2020
Venue - Dates: 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS), , Boston, United States, 2020-08-23 - 2020-08-25
Keywords: Virtual prototyping, SystemC, Embedded Systems, GPU Power, NVML, PTX, PAPI

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 439059
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439059
PURE UUID: d7375e80-d594-437f-b200-712793d440e9
ORCID for Sivert T. Sliper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8991-3783
ORCID for Alexander Weddell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6763-5460
ORCID for Geoff Merrett: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4980-3894

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 02 Apr 2020 16:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:05

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Contributors

Author: Sivert T. Sliper ORCID iD
Author: William Wang
Author: Nikos Nikoleris
Author: Alexander Weddell ORCID iD
Author: Geoff Merrett ORCID iD

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