VLIW(Very Long Instruction Word)

Advanced Computer Architecture

1. VLIW (VERY LONG INSTRUCTION WORD) PRESENTED BY:PRAGNYA DASH

2. VLIW PROCESSORS:A METHOD TO EXPLOIT INSTRUCTION LEVEL PARALLELISM A VLIW processor is based on an architecture that implements Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP) means execution of multiple instructions at the same time. A Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) specifies multiple numbers of operations are grouped together into one very long instruction. In a VLIW processor, multiple operations inside the long instruction are issued in parallel to an equal number of functional units. They are passed to a register file that executes the operations in the instruction with the help of functional units provided as part of the hardware .

3. The compiler (not the processor) checks that there are only independent instructions executed in parallel so as to extract as much parallelism as possible. One program counter points to one long instruction. Since multiple operations are packed in one instruction word, the instruction words are much larger than CISC and RISC’s.

4. Implementation of VLIW by static scheduling T he VLIW architecture is implemented through static scheduling . This means that they are not done at runtime by the processor but are handled by the compiler. The compiler takes the complex instructions that need to be handled and compiles them into object code . The object code is then passed to the register file . It is this object code that is referred to as the Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW). The compiler must guarantee that the multiple instructions which group together are independent so they can be executable in parallel. The compiler prearranges the object code so the VLIW chip can quickly execute the instructions in parallel .

5. VLIW vs Super Scalar Super Scalar architectures, in contrast, use dynamic scheduling that transforms all ILP complexity to the processor hardware . This leads to greater hardware complexity that is not seen in VLIW hardware . VLIW chips don’t need most of the complex circuitry that super s calar chips must use to coordinate parallel execution at runtime . Thus in VLIW hardware complexity is greatly reduced: the executable instructions are generated directly by the compiler they are then passed as “native code” by the functional units present in the hardware

6. VLIW chips can cost less burn less power achieve significantly higher performance than comparable RISC and CISC chips.