Implementation and evaluation of a microthread architecture

Future many-core processor systems require scalable solutions that conventional architectures currently do not provide. This paper presents a novel architecture that demonstrates the required scalability. It is based on a model of computation developed in the AETHER project to provide a safe and composable approach to concurrent programming. The model supports a dynamic approach to concurrency that enables self-adaptivity in any environment so the model is quite general. It is implemented here in the instruction set of a dynamically scheduled RISC processor and many such processors form a microgrid. Binary compatibility over arbitrary clusters of such processors and an inherent scalability in both area and performance with concurrency exploited make this a very promising development for the era of many-core chips. This paper introduces the model, the processor and chip architecture and its emulation on a range of computational kernels. It also estimates the area of the structures required to support this model in silicon.