CS209 Computer Architecture
Performance
Somanath Tripathy
IIT Patna
This Class
• Performance Measure
Instruction Cycle with Interrupts
Program Flow Control
Program Timing
Instruction Cycle (with Interrupts) -
State Diagram
• Performance
Performance Growth In Perspective
• Dramatic Change in Technology
– Processor
• 2X in performance every 1.5 years; 1000X
performance in last decade (Moore’s Law)
– Main Memory
• DRAM capacity: 2x / 2 years; 1000X size in
last decade
• Cost/bit: improves about 25% per year
– Disk
• capacity: > 2X in size every 1.5 years
• Cost/bit: improves about 60% per year
Understanding Performance
• Algorithm
– Determines number of operations executed
• Programming language, compiler, architecture
– Determine number of machine instructions
executed per operation
• Processor and memory system
– Determine number of clock cycles per machine
instructions to be executed
• I/O system (including OS)
– Determine number of clock cycles per I/O
operations to be executed
Defining Performance
Consider 2 buses
Vehicle Max Capacity Avg. Speed
Bus1 60 Passengers 50kmph
Bus2 40 Passengers 60kmph
Destination: 300kms
Which Bus has the best performance?
Response Time and Throughput
• Response time
– How long it takes to do a task
• Throughput
– Total work done per unit time
• e.g., tasks/transactions/… per hour
• Response time and throughput are affected by
– Replacing the processor with a faster version?
– Adding more processors?
• We’ll focus on response time for now…
Relative Performance
• Performance = 1/Execution Time
• “X is n time faster than Y”
Performanc e X Performanc e Y
= Execution time Y Execution time X = n
◼ Example: time taken to run a program
◼ 10s on A, 15s on B
◼ So A is ? times faster than B 1.5
Measuring CPU Time
• CPU Time: Time spent in processing a given job
CPU Time = CPU Clock Cycles Clock Cycle Time
CPU Clock Cycles
=
Clock Rate
• Performance improved by
– Reducing number of clock cycles (good
algorithm or hardware design)
– Increasing clock rate (good technology)
– Hardware designer must often trade off clock
rate against cycle count
Instruction Count and CPI
Clock Cycles = Instruction Count Cycles per Instruction
CPU Time = Instruction Count CPI Clock Cycle Time
Instruction Count CPI
=
Clock Rate
• Instruction Count for a program
– Determined by program, ISA and compiler
• Average cycles per instruction
– Determined by CPU hardware
– If different instructions have different CPI
• Average CPI affected by instruction mix
CPI Example
• Computer A: Cycle Time = 250ps, CPI = 2.0
• Computer B: Cycle Time = 500ps, CPI = 1.2
• Same ISA
• Which is faster, and by how much?
CPU Time = Instruction Count CPI Cycle Time
A A A
= I 2.0 250ps = I 500ps A is faster…
CPU Time = Instruction Count CPI Cycle Time
B B B
= I 1.2 500ps = I 600ps
B = I 600ps = 1.2
CPU Time
…by this much
CPU Time I 500ps
A
Thanks
