Encoding Mini-Graphs with Handle Prefix Outlining

Recently proposed techniques like mini-graphs, CCA-subgraphs, and static strands exploit application-specific compound or fused instructions to reduce execution time, energy consumption, and/or processor complexity. To achieve their full potential, these techniques rely on static tools to identify common instruction sequences that make good fusion candidates. As a result, they also rely on ISA extension facilities that can encode these chosen instruction groups in a way that supports efficient execution on fusion-enabled hardware as well as compatibility across different implementations, including fusion-agnostic implementations. This paper describes handle prefix outlining, the ISA extension scheme used by mini-graph processors. Handle prefix outlining can be thought of as a hybrid of the encoding scheme used by three previous instruction aggregation techniques: PRISC, static strands, and CCA-subgraphs. It combines the best features of each scheme to deliver both full compatibility and execution efficiency on fusion-enabled processors.