Consider a 6-stage instruction pipeline, where all stages are perfectl...
Understanding the Problem
To solve this problem, we need to understand the concept of instruction pipelines and how they affect the execution time of a program.
Instruction Pipelining
- Instruction pipelining is a technique used in modern processors to improve their performance by allowing multiple instructions to overlap in execution.
- This is achieved by dividing the instruction execution into several stages, where each stage performs a specific operation on the instruction.
- The pipeline is divided into stages such as instruction fetch, decode, execute, memory access, writeback, etc.
- Each stage takes a certain amount of time to complete, and instructions move from one stage to the next in a sequential manner.
Perfectly Balanced 6-Stage Pipeline
In this problem, we are given a 6-stage instruction pipeline that is perfectly balanced. This means that each stage takes the same amount of time to complete.
- Let's assume that each stage takes one cycle to complete its operation.
Impact of Pipeline Stalls
- A pipeline stall occurs when an instruction cannot proceed to the next stage due to a dependency or a data hazard.
- In this problem, 25% of the instructions incur 2 pipeline stall cycles. This means that 25% of the instructions experience a delay of 2 cycles before proceeding to the next stage.
- The remaining 75% of the instructions do not incur any pipeline stalls and proceed smoothly through the pipeline.
Calculating Speedup
To calculate the speedup achieved with respect to non-pipelined execution, we need to compare the execution time of the pipelined and non-pipelined scenarios.
Non-Pipelined Execution
- In a non-pipelined execution, each instruction completes its execution before the next instruction starts.
- The time taken to execute a program with N instructions is N cycles.
Pipelined Execution
- In a pipelined execution, multiple instructions are overlapped in execution.
- Assuming each stage takes one cycle, the execution time of a program with N instructions is equal to the number of stages.
- In our case, the execution time would be 6 cycles.
Calculating Speedup
- Speedup is defined as the ratio of the execution time in the non-pipelined scenario to the execution time in the pipelined scenario.
- Speedup = Non-Pipelined Execution Time / Pipelined Execution Time
- Speedup = N / 6
Given Information
- 25% of the instructions incur 2 pipeline stall cycles.
- This means that 25% of the instructions take 2 extra cycles to complete their execution.
Calculating Effective Pipeline Stages
- Since 25% of the instructions incur 2 pipeline stall cycles, it means that these instructions effectively occupy 2 extra pipeline stages.
- The total number of pipeline stages would be 6 stages + 2 stages = 8 stages.
Calculating Speedup with Effective Pipeline Stages
- Speedup = Non-Pipelined Execution Time / Pipelined Execution Time
- Speedup = N / 8
Substituting the Given Values
- Since the problem does not provide the number of