The Profet Project

Overview:

The name "Profet" comes from "PROactive FETching data". Profet is also a deliberate misspelling of both "prophet" (as in predicting the future, which is what we do improve cache performance) and "profit" (as in optimizing "cash" - sic), and it is pronounced like both of those words.

People Working for Profet:

Project Leader:

• Prof. Todd C. Mowry

Graduate Students:

• Angela Demke Brown
• Shimin Chen
• Mengzhi Wang

Undergrads:

• James Wilson

Dearly Departed:

• C.K. Luk, PhD 2000.

Publications:

Improving the Cache Performance of Databases:

• Improving Index Performance through Prefetching. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Shimin Chen, Phillip B. Gibbons and Todd C. Mowry.
  Proceedings of the SIGMOD 2001 Conference, May 2001.
  • Full-blown Tech Report Version:
    Improving Index Performance through Prefetching. [ps], [ps.gz]
    Shimin Chen, Phillip B. Gibbons and Todd C. Mowry.
    Technical Report CMU-CS-00-177, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, December 2000.

Prefetching Data from Memory into Cache:

• Automatic Compiler-Inserted Prefetching for Pointer-Based Applications.
  Chi-Keung Luk and Todd C. Mowry.
  In IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 48, No. 2, February 1999

• Compiler-Based Prefetching for Recursive Data Structures. [ps.gz]
  Chi-Keung Luk and Todd C. Mowry.
  Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, pages 222-233, October 1996.

Prefetching Data from Disk into Memory:

• Taming the Memory Hogs: Using Compiler-Inserted Releases to Manage Physical Memory Intelligently. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Angela Demke Brown and Todd C. Mowry.
  Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 2000), pages 31-44, October 2000.

• Automatic Compiler-Inserted I/O Prefetching for Out-of-Core Applications. [ps.gz]
  Todd C. Mowry, Angela K. Demke and Orran Krieger.
  Proceedings of the Second Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI '96), pages 3-17, October 1996.

Prefetching Instructions:

• Cooperative Prefetching: Compiler and Hardware Support for Effective Instruction Prefetching in Modern Processors. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Chi-Keung Luk and Todd C. Mowry.
  In Proceedings of Micro-31, Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, 1998, Dallas, Texas.
  • Earlier Tech Report Version:
    Compiler and Hardware Support for Automatic Instruction Prefetching: A Cooperative Approach. [ps], [ps.gz]
    Chi-Keung Luk and Todd C. Mowry.
    Technical Report CMU-CS-98-140, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, June 1998.

Facilitating Data Layout Optimizations:

• Memory Forwarding: Enabling Aggressive Layout Optimizations by Guaranteeing the Safety of Data Relocation. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Chi-Keung Luk and Todd C. Mowry.
  In Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, May 1999.

Predicting When Cache Misses Occur:

• Understanding Why Correlation Profiling Improves the Predictability of Data Cache Misses in Nonnumeric Applications.
  Todd C. Mowry and Chi-Keung Luk.
  In IEEE Transactions on Computers, Vol. 49, No. 4, April 2000.

• Predicting Data Cache Misses in Non-Numeric Applications Through Correlation Profiling. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Todd C. Mowry and Chi-Keung Luk.
  Proceedings of Micro-30, December 1-3, 1997, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
  • Extended Tech Report Version:
    Predicting Data Cache Misses in Non-Numeric Applications Through Correlation Profiling. [ps], [ps.gz]
    Todd C. Mowry and Chi-Keung Luk
    Technical Report CMU-CS-97-175, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, September 1997.

Informing Memory Operations:

• Software-Controlled Multithreading Using Informing Memory Operations. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Todd C. Mowry and Sherwyn R. Ramkissoon.
  In Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture, January, 2000.
  • Earlier Tech Report Version:
    Software-Controlled Multithreading Using Informing Memory Operations. [ps], [ps.gz]
    Todd C. Mowry and Sherwyn R. Ramkissoon.
    Technical Report CMU-CS-98-169, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, October 1998.

• Informing Memory Operations: Memory Performance Feedback Mechanisms and Their Applications.
  Mark Horowitz, Margaret Martonosi, Todd C. Mowry, and Michael D. Smith.
  In ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 16(2):170-205, May 1998.

• Informing Memory Operations: Providing Memory Performance Feedback in Modern Processors. [ps.gz]
  Mark Horowitz, Margaret Martonosi, Todd C. Mowry, and Michael D. Smith.
  Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, pages 260-270, May 1996.
  • Earlier Tech Report Version:
    Informing Loads: Enabling Software to Observe and React to Memory Behavior. [ps.gz]
    Mark Horowitz, Margaret Martonosi, Todd C. Mowry, and Michael D. Smith.
    Stanford University Technical Report CSL-TR-95-673 (also numbered STAN-CS-95-675), July 1995.

Tolerating Network Latencies:

• Comparative Evaluation of Latency Tolerance Techniques for Software Distributed Shared Memory. [ps], [ps.gz]
  Todd C. Mowry, Charles Q. C. Chan and Adley K. W. Lo.
  Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture, February 2-4, 1998, Las Vegas, Nevada.