Keywords

memory hierarchy, cache, replacement policy

Abstract

The increasing speed gap between microprocessors and off-chip DRAM makes last-level caches (LLCs) a critical component for computer performance. Multi core processors aggravate the problem since multiple processor cores compete for the LLC. As a result, LLCs typically consume a significant amount of the die area and effective utilization of LLCs is mandatory for both performance and power efficiency. We present a novel replacement policy for last-level caches (LLCs). The fundamental observation is to view LLCs as a shared resource among multiple address streams with each stream being generated by a static memory access instruction. The management of LLCs in both single-core and multi-core processors can then be modeled as a competition among multiple instructions. In our proposed scheme, we prioritize those instructions based on the number of LLC accesses and reuses and only allow cache lines having high instruction priorities to replace those of low priorities. The hardware support for our proposed replacement policy is light-weighted. Our experimental results based on a set of SPEC 2006 benchmarks show that it achieves significant performance improvement upon the least-recently used (LRU) replacement policy for benchmarks with high numbers of LLC misses. To handle LRU-friendly workloads, the set sampling technique is adopted to retain the benefits from the LRU replacement policy.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Zhou, Huiyang

Degree

Master of Science in Computer Engineering (M.S.Cp.E.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Degree Program

Computer Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003377

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003377

Language

English

Release Date

August 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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