Exploring the tradeoffs of configurability and heterogeneity in multicore embedded systems

Embedded systems, such as smartphones, have become ubiquitous due to the versatility of these devices for various applications, which have varying application resource requirements. Due to these variances, system resources should be specialized to the executing applications' resource requirements in order to adhere to design/optimization goals (e.g., reduced energy consumption, improved performance, etc.). In multicore systems, core heterogeneity and/or configurability affords specialization, however, this design choice exacerbates design challenges and complexity due to an embedded system's stringent design constraints. We evaluate the benefits and tradeoffs of heterogeneous and configurable cores as compared to homogeneous cores for design-constrained multicore embedded systems. Our studies provide valuable insights and guidelines on design choices and show that combining heterogeneity and configurability provides unique opportunities for fine-grained specialization.