Work-in-Progress: Hot-patching Technique for Imprecise Computing by Saving Resource

Abstract

Imprecise computing has emerged as an approach for designing energy-efficient digital systems as it can save computing resources. Hot-patching is one of the techniques used to implement it. Hot-patching can add or delete application functions without restarting the application. In this study, we implemented a hot-patching tool for a Linux application and applied it to imprecise computing. We measured the CPU cycle and instruction counts based on square root calculation applications. The experimental results confirmed that CPU resource utilization reduced by 20% when applying a patch with an error range of approximately 2%. Hence, we confirmed that imprecise computing can be performed through hot-patching.