Does cache sharing on modern CMP matter to the performance of contemporary multithreaded programs?

Most modern Chip Multiprocessors (CMP) feature shared cache on chip. For multithreaded applications, the sharing reduces communication latency among co-running threads, but also results in cache contention. A number of studies have examined the influence of cache sharing on multithreaded applications, but most of them have concentrated on the design or management of shared cache, rather than a systematic measurement of the influence. Consequently, prior measurements have been constrained by the reliance on simulators, the use of out-of-date benchmarks, and the limited coverage of deciding factors. The influence of CMP cache sharing on contemporary multithreaded applications remains preliminarily understood. In this work, we conduct a systematic measurement of the influence on two kinds of commodity CMP machines, using a recently released CMP benchmark suite, PARSEC, with a number of potentially important factors on program, OS, and architecture levels considered. The measurement shows...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: PPOPP
• Authors: Eddy Z. Zhang, Xipeng Shen, Yunlian Jiang
• Keywords: Cache Sharing, CMP Cache, Feature Shared Cache, Parallel Computing, PPOPP 2010