Configurable cache tuning with a victim cache

A victim cache is a small memory block usually connected after the first level cache, and provides recovery of recently evicted cache blocks. This small component can significantly improve the hit rate of the cache hierarchy. However, its effectiveness varies greatly with the application. Thus, tuning the victim cache in combination with its upper cache level to fit the running application can yield important energy savings. In this paper, we propose a tuning cache heuristic that explores the features of a level 1 data cache in combination with the tuning of a victim cache. Experimental results show that this approach generates a significant improvement in energy efficiency, in comparison with a fixed cache hierarchy approach and against a state of the art tuning heuristic.