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)
STARS Citation
Xiang, Ping, "Analyzing Instructtion Based Cache Replacement Policies" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4441.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4441