Influence of buffers on RISC core performance [HDTV source decoder system]

In an HDTV source decoder system, an efficient bus plays an important role in maximizing the system performance. This paper proposes two models to evaluate how the buffer and priority schemes in bus arbitration unit can affect HDTV decoder system performance. A Store Probability and Buffer Size (SP-BS) model and Capability Performance Formula (CPF) model are proposed to investigate the influence of the buffer on system performance, and to obtain a quantitative relation between them. According to the models, an optimal buffer size with the highest performance/cost ratio for benchmarks can be obtained.