Architecture-dependent optimization techniques

Depending on the processor family used as well as the type of coprocessors available, several optimizations are possible:

• Conversion from floating point to fixed point in the absence of math co-processor.

Benefits

• Lower computational cost,

• Lower energy consumption,

• Sufficient signal-to-noise ratio if correctly scaled,

• Suitable e.g. for mobile applications.

Problems

• Dynamic range reduction,

• Possible overflows.

Use of assembly specifics.

• Example: on ARM architecture it is possible to set flags when doing an arithmetic operation.

There are many other techniques that, due to time limitations, are not covered in this course unit:

• Some classes:

  • Controlling resource use (e.g. variables assigned to registers).

  • Exploring parallelism.

  • Multiple memory banks.

  • Multimedia instructions.