Design issues and performance

improvement in Simultaneous
multithreading (SMT)
Dated: 08 May 2022

Research Proposal
Advance Computer Architecture
Muhammad Zeeshan Tanveer- 34534
Abstract
Introduction
As we are stepping into a new era of technology advancement which includes ideas like metaverse, blockchain and
many more. Hence, we need more computational power to fulfil the requirement of present-day challenges, for
that particular reason we are exploring many different ways to get these upcoming challenges handled. Up till now
we have discovered many ways in which we are successful in achieving what was required but for this particular
article we will be looking on the Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) mechanism and will be discussing about the
pros, cons, issues and the improvements which are related to SMT.

This research will allow us to explore the SMT to an extend where we will see in depth that what previously has been
done and what improvements are being in process the field of SMT. We will also discuss that what are the limitation
we could face when working with SMT and what we can possibly achieve in future by improving the mechanism of
SMT.

Motivation & Background

Travelling back just like in 1950s when we were first time introduced to Multithreading and then in 1968 IBM
introduce a Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) mechanism for the very first time in the history of computer [1]. The
introduction of these to mechanism gave a great boast to the computational power that we used to have before we
knew the word Multithreading or Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT). It was a game changer in term of
computational power at that time. But, really was this a very great invention? We will see that later in this article.

The main purpose to introduce SMT was to speed up things at hardware level. SMT allows our computer to process
multiple processes simultaneous and when we use the word simultaneously for our computers this means we are
talking about giving fraction of the fraction of time for the processes to switch between each another. If we look at
very micro level then we are still performing one process at a unit time but by using the mechanism like SMT we
have reduced that fraction to a very tiny number. This makes us feel like we are performing many processes
simultaneously. This can be considered as true, as the fraction on which we have reduced the unit cycle is comparably
very tiny.

So, we will be looking on some methods by which we can take SMT mechanism to more efficient level and make it
more effective in term of computational power and resources management. This will definitely be a great deal when
we are looking towards an era of technology where we are required to process huge amount of data and that have
to be very quick to make our systems responsive and user friendly.

Problem Statement
With more and more computational power requirement which are demanded by the new technologies we are
headed to, Perhaps, now we are almost meting a bottle neck with the requirement if we keep using the existing
mechanism of computing data. This brings the need of getting the existing mechanism better and more
computationally powerful.

Research Objectives
We will be digging into the new dimensions in which we can improve the computational power in respect to space
and time. So, perhaps we can get out some more efficient mechanism by varying and playing around with different
aspect of the SMT and analyzing the pros and cons of varying different aspects.

We will be looking the loop holes of the current implementation of SMT and will try to improve them by
overcoming the existing problem which will definitely give us a better SMT mechanism.
Research Contribution
This research will highly contribute in improving the performance of our current computer and will provide a great
boast to the new technologies like metaverse and blockchain to be performed with much lesser time and with much
efficient way. This will allow others researchers to explore the loop holes which are present in current mechanism
and they will have a food for their mind that how they can come up with something of better benefits. This research
paper will also allow you to analyses the SMT with different aspects like space, time, resources management and
many more.

Research Methodology
In this paper we will be looking into the existing mechanism of the SMT and will try to vary different aspects. We
will be only varying one aspect at one time, while keeping all other aspect constant (as our control variable).

Literature Review
One of the papers I went through was amazing as they deeply discuss the energy efficiency with respect of
Simultaneous Multithreading and how we can improve it. This paper can be found by the name “Understanding
the Energy Efficiency of Simultaneous Multithreading” and it’s a must read if you want to get a deep
knowledge of power utilization in Simultaneous Multithreading [2].

References / Bibliography

[1] History of multithreading. Multithreading -- Mark Smotherman. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2022, from
https://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/multithreading.html#:~:text=Summary%3A%20Multithreading%20fir
st%20appeared%20in,investigated%20by%20IBM%20in%201968.&text=Most%20attempts%20at%20a%20h
istory,PPUs%20in%20the%20CDC%206600.

[2] Li, Y., Brooks, D., Hu, Z., Skadron, K., & Bose, P. (2004). Understanding the energy efficiency of
simultaneous multithreading. Proceedings of the 2004 International Symposium on Low Power Electronics
and Design - ISLPED '04. https://doi.org/10.1145/1013235.1013251