Adapting cache partitioning algorithms to pseudo-LRU replacement policies

Abstract-- Recent studies have shown that cache partitioning is an efficient technique to improve throughput, fairness and Quality of Service (QoS) in CMP processors. The cache partitioning algorithms proposed so far assume Least Recently Used (LRU) as the underlying replacement policy. However, it has been shown that the true LRU imposes extraordinary complexity and area overheads when implemented on high associativity caches, such as last level caches. As a consequence, current processors available on the market use pseudo-LRU replacement policies, which provide similar behavior as LRU, while reducing the hardware complexity. Thus, the presented so far LRU-based cache partitioning solutions cannot be applied to real CMP architectures. This paper proposes a complete partitioning system for caches using the pseudo-LRU replacement policy. In particular, the paper focuses on the pseudo-LRU implementations proposed by Sun Microsystems and IBM, called Not Recently Used (NRU) and Binary Tre...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: IPPS
• Authors: Kamil Kedzierski, Miquel Moretó, Francisco J. Cazorla, Mateo Valero
• Keywords: Cache, Cache Partitioning, Cache Partitioning Algorithms, Distributed And Parallel Computing, IPPS 2010