TY - CONF T1 - Mitigating the impact of process variations on processor register files and execution units T2 - Microarchitecture, 2006. MICRO-39. 39th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Y1 - 2006 A1 - Xiaoyao Liang A1 - David Brooks AB - Design variability due to die-to-die and within-die process variations has the potential to significantly reduce the maximum operating frequency and the effective yield of high-performance microprocessors in future process technology generations. One serious manifestation of this increased variability is a reduction in the mean frequency of fabricated chips due to fluctuations in device characteristics causing reduced circuit performance. In this paper, we propose to mitigate the impact of variations through variable-latency register files and execution units which are key architectural components that may encounter variability problems. We also illustrate the importance of closing the gap in expected delay of these distinct structures. A post fabrication test and configuration strategy is proposed. We find that 23% mean frequency improvement with an average IPC loss of 3% (and never exceeding 5% for worst case chips) is possible for the 65nm technology node by properly adopting the proposed schemes JF - Microarchitecture, 2006. MICRO-39. 39th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on PB - IEEE UR - https://doi.org/10.1109/MICRO.2006.37 ER -