big.LITTLE in the world of DynamIQ

Author: Govind Wathan, ARM computing products division product manager

ARM DynamIQ technology was recently released, which has generated strong interest in the technology industry and “technology enthusiasts” due to its impact on the future development of big.LITTLE technology. In short, big.LITTLE is part of the DynamIQ technology. So now let's go back and look at the relationship from a larger scope.

In October 2011, big.LITTLE became the world's number one heterogeneous processing technology for the mobile phone market. The architecture of the technology includes a high-performance "big" CPU cluster and a high-efficiency "LITTLE" CPU cluster that are connected by a consistent interconnect. Software running on this architecture (global task scheduling) can dispatch the correct application tasks to the correct CPU.

Over the years, CPUs have evolved to deliver more features, performance and energy efficiency. The software layer has also been updated to introduce a more intelligent task scheduling algorithm. However, during this time, the hardware technology architecture foundation remains basically the same, still two (or more) CPU clusters.

The technology is rapidly being used in the mobile phone market where power efficiency and battery life are critical to the user experience. As a result, two-thirds of today's ARMv8-based shipped Android devices rely on big.LITTLE to optimize power and performance.

Despite the potential combination of "big" CPUs and "small" CPUs, DynamIQ brings a new technology architecture that can change the heterogeneous processing landscape. Its approach is to merge two clusters of size to form a fully integrated CPU cluster with both large and small CPUs. The big.LITTLE design built using DynamIQ technology is called DynamIQ big.LITTLE. DynamIQ big.LITTLE technology introduces intelligent power consumption into the CPU cluster to help maximize performance within a certain amount of heat. This means that data processing power and performance will be even stronger, no matter what application you use, you can enjoy a richer experience.

DynamIQ big.LITTLE can bring the following benefits:

· Fully integrated solution for broader product differentiation

· Single-threaded performance boosts for a better user experience

· Higher energy efficiency through advanced power management features

As consumers, we have been expecting the computing power of smartphones to continue to improve – for every new device, whether it is a high-end smartphone or an entry-level model. Objectively speaking, PokemonGo became the number one application for manpower after landing in the mobile phone market in 2016, even on entry-level smartphones. In order to meet consumer demand for higher performance, especially in price-sensitive markets, product differentiation within system-on-chip (SoC) has become more important.

The new integrated cluster in the DynamIQ big.LITTLE system is not only suitable for mainstream CPU combinations such as the existing “2+4” (2 “big” 4 “small”), but also to expand product differentiation (especially at the mid-end). A new combination of markets). These new combinations (such as "1+3" and "1+7") will allow "big" CPUs to be increasingly used in the mid-market to match performance levels to traditional designs with only "small" CPUs. Improved. However, the scope of scalability does not end there. The DynamIQ big.LITTLE system also allows individual or grouped CPUs to be tuned to different performance and power points within a cluster, extending the design to almost endless possibilities. The high degree of flexibility offered by DynamIQ creates a differentiation opportunity for price-sensitive markets.

While the user experience is constantly evolving as the application evolves, one thing remains the same: the user experience relies heavily on single-threaded computing performance in terms of response speed. Advanced uses such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) will continue to place higher demands on the user experience. However, the mobile phone market quickly reminds us that heat generation limits the amount of performance that a device can achieve. The range of thermal efficiency issues has gone beyond the mobile phone market, and it is a major factor that cannot be ignored in other markets such as cars and notebooks.

To overcome this problem, big.LITTLE relies on technologies such as Dynamic Voltage/Frequency Regulation (DVFS) to achieve two complementary performance domains, each of which consistently regulates voltage and frequency. DynamIQ further develops this technology by supporting multiple configurable performance domains in a single cluster. These performance domains consist of single or multiple ARM CPUs that can be tuned for performance and power consumption with better granularity and up to 4x better adjustment accuracy than previous Cortex-A quad-core clusters Upgrade.

The nature of the DynamIQ technology means that the DynamIQ big.LITTLE system can deliver more performance under tighter heat limits, extending the duration of performance. Such systems can also take advantage of transient performance gains for faster responsiveness and a better user experience for applications such as application launch or gestures (such as rotation, swipe, and pinch zoom) on a touch screen or touchpad.

After the monitoring management system is upgraded, all task transfers between CPUs of size and size can now be performed within a single CPU cluster through shared memory, thereby improving energy efficiency. The transfer of shared data between "big" CPUs and "small" CPUs can also be done within a single cluster. From a system perspective, this reduces data traffic, which reduces power consumption and brings overall system efficiency advantages.

In addition, the DynamIQ big.LITTLE system also benefits from the configurable larger cache space in the CPU cluster. This cache size is fully configurable, allowing for a greater amount of heterogeneous processing within the cluster, which reduces access to external memory and reduces the power consumption of the system when running certain applications. This also means reducing the CPU's data latency, which improves performance while reducing power consumption.

DynamIQ big.LITTLE also features advanced power management features from DynamIQ technology. The DynamIQ system is designed to speed up conversions between different CPU power states, such as power-on, power-off, and hibernation. This shortens the time it takes for the CPU to enter standby or power-down mode, making the transition to the in/out standby state more efficient. In addition, there is an automatic memory power management feature that intelligently adjusts the amount of local memory available in the cluster based on the type of application running on the CPU.

All in all: big.LITTLE improves power consumption and thermal efficiency in a restricted environment, increasing the computing power of the device, providing a richer user experience for consumers. DynamIQ technology allows us to stand in a new era of heterogeneous processing. DynamIQ big.LITTLE increases the efficiency of high-performance, advanced uses such as AR and VR, opening a new era of rich and innovative user experience.

From a software perspective, the Energy Aware Dispatcher (EAS) development for the Linux kernel is designed to handle advanced system-on-chip (SoC) configurations, such as the new DynamIQ functionality. EAS support for the underlying configuration is already available for Linux, including Android and other Linux derivatives. Android now also has task classification capabilities that can be used to speed up mission-critical tasks to provide the best user experience on devices with EAS.

Compared to big.LITTLE itself, DynamIQ big.LITTLE brings three major advantages:

· Fully integrated solution for broader product differentiation

· Better control of CPU speed for a better user experience

· Higher energy efficiency through advanced power management features

Having said that, it's worth mentioning that big.LITTLE is just one of the many features supported by DynamIQ technology. The DynamIQ system also offers significant advantages for uniform systems in various markets, ie not the big.LITTLE system.

To learn how DynamIQ technology redefines the multicore experience so that future technologies can change our daily lives, visit the DynamIQ feature page.

English original text: https://community.arm.com/processors/b/blog/posts/where-does-big-little-fit-in-the-world-of-dynamiq

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