Efficient evaluation of mappings of dataflow applications onto distributed memory architectures

Overview & Synopsis

With the increasing use of smart-phones, connected objects or automated vehicles, embedded systems have become ubiquitous in our living environment. These systems are often highly constrained in terms of power consumption and size. They are more and more implemented with many-core processor array that allow, rapid design to meet stringent real-time constraints while operating at relatively low frequency, with reduced power consumption.Running an application on a processor array requires dispatching its tasks on the processors in order to meet capacity and performance constraints. This mapping problem is known to be NP-complete.The contributions of this thesis are threefold:First we extend important notions from the Cyclo-Static Dataflow Graph to the Phased Computation Graph model and two equivalent sufficient conditions of liveness.Second, we present a random dataflow graph generator able to generate Synchonous Dataflow Graphs, Cyclo-Static Dataflow Graphs and Phased Computation Graphs. The Generator, is able to generate live dataflow of up to 10,000 tasks in less than 30 seconds. It is compared with SDF3 and PREESM.Third and most important, we propose a new method of evaluation of a mapping using the Synchonous Dataflow Graph and the Cyclo-Static Dataflow Graph models. The method evaluates efficiently the memory footprint of the communications of a dataflow graph mapped on a distributed architecture. The evaluation is declined in two versions, the first guarantees a live mapping while the second accounts for a constraint on throughput.The evaluation method is experimented on dataflow graphs from Turbine and on real-life applications.