RECET-a real-time cache evaluation tool

Previously used methods to analyse and model the behaviour and performance of various cache configurations have been limited in many ways. Either the method itself produces inaccurate results, or assumptions regarding the memory referencing behaviour of the workload has been made. Many trace-driven simulations have used incomplete traces and have resulted in overoptimistic results. These results have in many cases been obtained using rather crude assumptions about the behaviour of workloads in real computing environments. A new approach is presented in this paper that not only captures complete and accurate address traces but also preprocesses and simulates various cache parameters in real time. The RECET (Real-time Cache Evaluation Tool) project is realized as a flexible, modular and configurable tool which can be used to capture and preprocess address traces, and simulate multiple cache configurations in real time from any source without disturbing the operation of the target computer