Computer Organization Improving Cache Performance

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Review: The Memory Hierarchy

Take advantage of the principle of locality to present the user with as much memory as is available in the cheapest technology at the speed offered by the fastest technology
Processor
4-8 bytes (word)

Increasing distance from the processor in access time

L1$
8-32 bytes (block)

L2$
1 to 4 blocks

Main Memory

Inclusive what is in L1$ is a subset of what is in L2$ is a subset of what is in MM that is a subset of is in SM

1,024+ bytes (disk sector = page)

Secondary Memory

(Relative) size of the memory at each level

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Review: Principle of Locality

Temporal Locality

Keep most recently accessed data items closer to the processor

To Processor Upper Level Memory From Processor Blk X Blk Y Lower Level Memory

Spatial Locality

Move blocks consisting of contiguous words to the upper levels

Hit Time << Miss Penalty

Hit: data appears in some block in the upper level (Blk X)

- Hit Rate: the fraction of accesses found in the upper level - Hit Time: RAM access time + Time to determine hit/miss

Miss: data needs to be retrieve from a lower level block (Blk Y)

- Miss Rate = 1 - (Hit Rate) - Miss Penalty: Time to replace a block in the upper level with a block from the lower level + Time to deliver this blocks word to the processor

- Miss Types: Compulsory, Conflict, Capacity

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Measuring Cache Performance

Assuming cache hit costs are included as part of the normal CPU execution cycle, then
CPU time = IC CPI CC
= IC (CPIideal + Memory-stall cycles) CC CPIstall

Memory-stall cycles come from cache misses (a sum of read-stalls and write-stalls)
Read-stall cycles = reads/program read miss rate read miss penalty Write-stall cycles = (writes/program write miss rate write miss penalty) + write buffer stalls

For write-through caches, we can simplify this to

Memory-stall cycles = miss rate miss penalty

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Review: The Memory Wall

Logic vs DRAM speed gap continues to grow

1000
Clocks per instruction

100 10 1 0.1 0.01 VAX/1980 PPro/1996 2010+

Core Memory

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Clocks per DRAM access

Impacts of Cache Performance

Relative cache penalty increases as processor performance improves (faster clock rate and/or lower CPI)

The memory speed is unlikely to improve as fast as processor cycle time. When calculating CPIstall, the cache miss penalty is measured in processor clock cycles needed to handle a miss
The lower the CPIideal, the more pronounced the impact of stalls

A processor with a CPIideal of 2, a 100 cycle miss penalty, 36% load/store instrs, and 2% I$ and 4% D$ miss rates
Memory-stall cycles = 2% 100 + 36% 4% 100 = 3.44 So CPIstalls = 2 + 3.44 = 5.44

What if the CPIideal is reduced to 1? 0.5? 0.25? What if the processor clock rate is doubled (doubling the miss penalty)?
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CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Reducing Cache Miss Rates #1

1.

Allow more flexible block placement In a direct mapped cache a memory block maps to exactly one cache block At the other extreme, could allow a memory block to be mapped to any cache block fully associative cache A compromise is to divide the cache into sets each of which consists of n ways (n-way set associative). A memory block maps to a unique set (specified by the index field) and can be placed in any way of that set (so there are n choices)
(block address) modulo (# sets in the cache)
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CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Set Associative Cache Example

Cache Way Set V Tag 0 1 0 1 0 1 Data

Q1: Is it there? Compare all the cache tags in the set to the high order 3 memory address bits to tell if the memory block is in the cache
CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Main Memory 0000xx 0001xx Two low order bits 0010xx define the byte in the word (32-b words) 0011xx One word blocks 0100xx 0101xx 0110xx 0111xx 1000xx Q2: How do we find it? 1001xx 1010xx Use next 1 low order 1011xx memory address bit to 1100xx determine which 1101xx cache set (i.e., modulo 1110xx the number of sets in 1111xx the cache)

Another Reference String Mapping

Consider the main memory word reference string

0 4 0 4 0 4 0 4
0 hit 000 010 Mem(0) Mem(4) 000 010 4 hit Mem(0) Mem(4)

Start with an empty cache - all blocks initially marked as not valid

0 miss 000 Mem(0) 000 010

4 miss Mem(0) Mem(4)

8 requests, 2 misses

Solves the ping pong effect in a direct mapped cache due to conflict misses since now two memory locations that map into the same cache set can co-exist!
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CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Four-Way Set Associative Cache

28 = 256 sets each with four ways (each with one block)
31 30 ... 13 12 11 ... 2 1 0

Byte offset

Tag
Index V Tag
0 1 2 . . . 253 254 255

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8 V Tag
0 1 2 . . . 253 254 255

Index
Data
0 1 2 . . . 253 254 255

V Tag

Data

Data
0 1 2 . . . 253 254 255

V Tag

Data

32

4x1 select
CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Hit

Data

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Range of Set Associative Caches

For a fixed size cache, each increase by a factor of two in associativity doubles the number of blocks per set (i.e., the number or ways) and halves the number of sets decreases the size of the index by 1 bit and increases the size of the tag by 1 bit
Used for tag compare Tag Selects the set Index Selects the word in the block Block offset Byte offset

Decreasing associativity Direct mapped (only one way) Smaller tags

Increasing associativity Fully associative (only one set) Tag is all the bits except block and byte offset

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Costs of Set Associative Caches

When a miss occurs, which ways block do we pick for replacement?

Least Recently Used (LRU): the block replaced is the one that has been unused for the longest time
- Must have hardware to keep track of when each ways block was used relative to the other blocks in the set - For 2-way set associative, takes one bit per set set the bit when a block is referenced (and reset the other ways bit)

N-way set associative cache costs

N comparators (delay and area) MUX delay (set selection) before data is available Data available after set selection (and Hit/Miss decision). In a direct mapped cache, the cache block is available before the Hit/Miss decision
- So its not possible to just assume a hit and continue and recover later if it was a miss

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Benefits of Set Associative Caches

The choice of direct mapped or set associative depends on the cost of a miss versus the cost of implementation
12 10 4KB 8KB 16KB 32KB 64KB 128KB 256KB 512KB
Data from Hennessy & Patterson, Computer Architecture, 2003

Miss Rate

8 6 4 2 0 1-way 2-way 4-way 8-way Associativity

Largest gains are in going from direct mapped to 2-way (20%+ reduction in miss rate)
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CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Reducing Cache Miss Rates #2

2.

Use multiple levels of caches

With advancing technology have more than enough room on the die for bigger L1 caches or for a second level of caches normally a unified L2 cache (i.e., it holds both instructions and data) and in some cases even a unified L3 cache
For our example, CPIideal of 2, 100 cycle miss penalty (to main memory), 36% load/stores, a 2% (4%) L1I$ (D$) miss rate, add a UL2$ that has a 25 cycle miss penalty and a 0.5% miss rate
CPIstalls = 2 + .0225 + .36.0425 + .005100 + .36.005100 = 3.54 (as compared to 5.44 with no L2$)

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Multilevel Cache Design Considerations

Design considerations for L1 and L2 caches are very different

Primary cache should focus on minimizing hit time in support of a shorter clock cycle
- Smaller with smaller block sizes

Secondary cache(s) should focus on reducing miss rate to reduce the penalty of long main memory access times
- Larger with larger block sizes

The miss penalty of the L1 cache is significantly reduced by the presence of an L2 cache so it can be smaller (i.e., faster) but have a higher miss rate For the L2 cache, hit time is less important than miss rate

The L2$ hit time determines L1$s miss penalty L2$ local miss rate >> than the global miss rate
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CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Key Cache Design Parameters

L1 typical Total size (blocks) Total size (KB) Block size (B) Miss penalty (clocks) Miss rates (global for L2)

L2 typical

250 to 2000 4000 to 250,000 16 to 64 32 to 64 10 to 25 2% to 5% 500 to 8000 32 to 128 100 to 1000 0.1% to 2%

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Two Machines Cache Parameters

Intel P4 L1 organization L1 cache size L1 block size L1 associativity L1 replacement L1 write policy L2 organization L2 cache size L2 block size L2 associativity L2 replacement L2 write policy
CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

AMD Opteron Split I$ and D$ 64KB for each of I$ and D$ 64 bytes 2-way set assoc. LRU write-back Unified 1024KB (1MB) 64 bytes 16-way set assoc. ~LRU write-back
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Split I$ and D$ 8KB for D$, 96KB for trace cache (~I$) 64 bytes 4-way set assoc. ~ LRU write-through Unified 512KB 128 bytes 8-way set assoc. ~LRU write-back

4 Questions for the Memory Hierarchy

Q1: Where can a block be placed in the upper level? (Block placement) Q2: How is a block found if it is in the upper level? (Block identification) Q3: Which block should be replaced on a miss? (Block replacement) Q4: What happens on a write? (Write strategy)

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Q1&Q2: Where can a block be placed/found?

# of sets Direct mapped Set associative Fully associative # of blocks in cache (# of blocks in cache)/ associativity 1 Blocks per set 1 Associativity (typically 2 to 16) # of blocks in cache

Location method Direct mapped Set associative Index Index the set; compare sets tags

# of comparisons 1 Degree of associativity

Fully associative Compare all blocks tags

# of blocks

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Q3: Which block should be replaced on a miss?

Easy for direct mapped only one choice

Set associative or fully associative

Random LRU (Least Recently Used)

For a 2-way set associative cache, random replacement has a miss rate about 1.1 times higher than LRU.
LRU is too costly to implement for high levels of associativity (> 4-way) since tracking the usage information is costly

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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Q4: What happens on a write?

Write-through The information is written to both the block in the cache and to the block in the next lower level of the memory hierarchy

Write-through is always combined with a write buffer so write waits to lower level memory can be eliminated (as long as the write buffer doesnt fill)

Write-back The information is written only to the block in the cache. The modified cache block is written to main memory only when it is replaced.

Need a dirty bit to keep track of whether the block is clean or dirty Write-through: read misses dont result in writes (so are simpler and cheaper) Write-back: repeated writes require only one write to lower level
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Pros and cons of each?

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Improving Cache Performance

0. Reduce the time to hit in the cache

smaller cache

direct mapped cache

smaller blocks for writes
- no write allocate no hit on cache, just write to write buffer

- write allocate to avoid two cycles (first check for hit, then write) pipeline writes via a delayed write buffer to cache

1. Reduce the miss rate

bigger cache more flexible placement (increase associativity) larger blocks (16 to 64 bytes typical) victim cache small buffer holding most recently discarded blocks
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CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

Improving Cache Performance

2. Reduce the miss penalty

smaller blocks use a write buffer to hold dirty blocks being replaced so dont have to wait for the write to complete before reading check write buffer (and/or victim cache) on read miss may get lucky for large blocks fetch critical word first use multiple cache levels L2 cache not tied to CPU clock rate faster backing store/improved memory bandwidth
- wider buses - memory interleaving, page mode DRAMs

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Summary: The Cache Design Space

Several interacting dimensions

Cache Size

cache size

block size
associativity replacement policy write-through vs write-back write allocation

Associativity

Block Size

The optimal choice is a compromise

depends on access characteristics

- workload
- use (I-cache, D-cache, TLB)
Bad

depends on technology / cost

Good Factor A Less

Factor B

Simplicity often wins

More

CPE232 Improving Cache Performance

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