Pipelining

By K. Santle Camilus

Based on the Text Book “Computer

Organization” by Carl Hamacher et al.,
Fifth Edition
 Introduction to Pipelining
• Laundry Example
• Ann, Brian, Cathy, Dave
each have one load of clothes
to wash, dry, and fold A B C D
• Washer takes 30 minutes

• Dryer takes 40 minutes

• “Folder” takes 20 minutes

 Sequential Laundry
6 PM 7 8 9 10 11 Midnight
Time

30 40 20 30 40 20 30 40 20 30 40 20
T
a A
s
k
B
O
r
d C
e
r
D
• Sequential laundry takes 6 hours for 4 loads
• If they learned pipelining, how long would laundry take?
 Pipelined Laundry
Start work ASAP
6 PM 7 8 9 10 11 Midnight
Time

30 40 40 40 40 20
T
a A
s
k
B
O
r
d C
e
r
D
• Pipelined laundry takes 3.5 hours for 4 loads
• Speedup = 6/3.5 = 1.7
 Pipelining Lessons
• Pipelining doesn’t help
6 PM 7 8 9 latency of single task, it
Time helps throughput of
entire workload
T
a 30 40 40 40 40 20 • Pipeline rate limited by
s slowest pipeline stage
k A • Multiple tasks operating
simultaneously
O • Potential speedup =
r B Number pipe stages ???
d
e • Unbalanced lengths of
r C pipe stages reduces
speedup
D
 Computer Pipelines
• Pipelining: An implementation technique that
overlaps the execution of multiple
instructions.
• Execute billions of instructions, so
throughput is what matters
Claim: (1) In pipelined two stage of execution, rate of instruction execution is
twice than that achievable by sequential operation. In four stage, it is four times.

(2) Increase in performance is directly propositional to the number of pipeline

stages
Hardware Organization for Four
Stage Pipelining
 Time for execution
• If different stages require different amount of
time, the clock period must allow the longest
stage to complete.
------ can we come up with a
equation for this?????
------- using this, can we
generalize the time taken for sequential and
pipeline execution?????
• Pipelining does not result in individual
instructions being executed faster; rather the
throughput that increases
 No cache in a computer. What
happens to pipelining?

• Perhaps it is related to time issue.

• Hamacher says:
Accessing a main memory is 10 times greater than
the time to execute a basic operation inside a processor
If so, what happens to Pipelining ?

• Pipelining is more effective if different stage requires

same amount of time.

• Now the role of cache?

 • Any condition that causes

Hazards the pipeline to stall (key term

meaning delay) is called a
Hazard.

Types:
• Data Hazard
• Control or instruction
Hazard
• Structural Hazard
Identify all hazards that may cause the pipeline to
stall and to find ways to minimize impact
 Structural Hazard

• This condition occurs when two instructions

require the use of a given hardware at the
same time.

• Two examples:

1.Two access to cache by two different

instructions- one for fetch, another for write.
What is the solution?
Structural Hazard [Example 2]
What is the solution to this
problem?????
 • Situation in which the
pipeline is stalled because
Data Hazard the data to be operated on
are delayed for some
reason.
 Data Hazard

• Results obtained when instruction are executed in

a pipelined processor must be identical to when
same instruction are executed sequentially.

Example: A = 3 + A
B=4*A
Assume A= 3,
result for sequential operation: B=24
Result for Pipelined operation: B= 12
( Oops!!! Answer is wrong)

What to do????????????
Data Hazard Mul R2, R3, R4
Example 2 Add R5,R4,R6
 What is the solution to
example 2 of data hazard

Solution 1:

• Solution for Example 2 of Data hazard-

Operand Forwarding

• After decoding instruction, a decision

is made to use data forwarding

• It is a hardware solution
What is the solution to example
2 of data hazard
• Solution 2:
• Alternatively, we look for software solution,
the work of detecting data dependency and
dealing is left to the software, Complier
i1: Mul R2, R3, R4
NOP
NOP
i2: Add R5, R4, R6
In NOP, the complier may reorder the
instruction and perform useful tasks.
 Side effects
• In the previous cases, the data dependencies are
explicit because the register are named explicitly.

• In few cases, when a location other than one explicitly

named in an instruction as a destination operand is
affected, the instruction is said to have a Side Effect
• Example: Add R1, R3
AddWithCarry R2, R4

Operation performed: R4=[R2]+[R4]+ Carry

- it rise to multiple data dependencies
How to handle this situation??
Instructional Hazard
Solution to Cache misses(1/2)
Solution to cache misses(2/2)
 Summary

Clarifications contact:
camilus@nitc.ac.in