Improving cache performance by combining cost-sensitivity and locality principles in cache replacement algorithms

Due to the ever increasing performance gap between the processor and the main memory, it becomes crucial to bridge that gap by designing an efficient memory hierarchy capable of reducing the average memory access time. The cache replacement algorithm plays a central role in designing an efficient memory hierarchy. Many of the recent studies in cache replacement algorithms have focused on improving L2 cache replacement algorithms by minimizing the miss count. However, depending on the dependency chain, cache miss bursts, and other factors, a processor´s ability to partially hide the cost of an L2 cache miss varies; that is, cache miss costs are not uniform. Therefore, a better solution would account also for the aggregate miss cost in designing cache replacement algorithms. Our proposed solution combines the two principles of locality and cost-sensitivity into one which we call: LACS: Locality-Aware Cost-Sensitive cache replacement algorithm. LACS estimates a cache block´s cost from the number of instructions the processor manages to issue during a cache miss on that block and then victimizes cache blocks with low cost and poor locality in order to maximize the overall cache performance. When LACS is evaluated using a uniprocessor architecture model, it speeds up 10 L2 cache performance-constrained SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks by up to 85% and 15% on average while not slowing down any of the 20 SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks evaluated. When evaluated using a dual-core CMP architecture model, LACS speeds up 6 SPEC CPU2000 benchmark pairs by up to 44% and 11% on average.