Versa: A Dataflow-Centric Multiprocessor with 36 Systolic ARM Cortex-M4F Cores and a Reconfigurable Crossbar-Memory Hierarchy in 28nm

Abstract

We present Versa, an energy-efficient processor with 36 systolic ARM Cortex-M4F cores and a runtime-reconfigurable memory hierarchy. Versa exploits algorithm-specific characteristics in order to optimize bandwidth, access latency, and data reuse. Measured on a set of kernels with diverse data access, control, and synchronization characteristics, reconfiguration between different Versa modes yields median energy-efficiency improvements of 11.6x and 37.2x over mobile CPU and GPU baselines, respectively.

Published at the Symposium on VLSI Circuits, 2021. Paper C9-4