CACHE MEMORY

Ref: Computer Organization and

Architecture
By: William Stallings
Chapter 4
Memory Hierarchy - Diagram
Performance
• Access time
—Time between presenting the address and
getting the valid data
• Memory Cycle time
—Time may be required for the memory to
“recover” before next access
—Cycle time is access + recovery
• Transfer Rate
—Rate at which data can be moved
So you want fast Operations?
• It is possible to build a computer which
uses only static RAM (see later)
• This would be very fast
• This would need no cache
—How can you cache cache?
• This would cost a very large amount
Cache
• Small amount of fast memory
• Sits between normal main memory and
CPU
• May be located on CPU chip or module
Cache
• Cache Memory is a special very high-
speed memory.
• The cache is a smaller and faster memory
that stores copies of the data from
frequently used main memory locations.
• There are various different independent
caches in a CPU, which store instructions
and data.
• The most important use of cache memory
is that it is used to reduce the average
time to access data from the main
memory.
Cache
• Cache memory is an extremely fast
memory type that acts as a buffer
between RAM and the CPU.
• Cache Memory holds frequently requested
data and instructions so that they are
immediately available to the CPU when
needed.
• Cache memory is costlier than main
memory or disk memory but more
economical than CPU registers.
• Cache Memory is used to speed up and
synchronize with a high-speed CPU.
Cache Performance – Cache HIT or Cache Miss?

• When the processor needs to read or write a

location in the main memory, it first checks for a
corresponding entry in the cache.
• If the processor finds that the memory location is
in the cache, a Cache Hit has occurred and data
is read from the cache.
• If the processor does not find the memory
location in the cache, a cache miss has
occurred. For a cache miss, the cache allocates a
new entry and copies in data from the main
memory.
 Cache Performance – Hit Ratio?

• The performance of cache memory is frequently

measured in terms of a quantity called Hit ratio.

Hit Ratio(H) = hit / (hit + miss) = no. of hits/total accesses

= 1 – Miss Ratio

Miss Ratio = miss / (hit + miss) = no. of miss/total accesses

= 1 – Hit Ratio

We can improve Cache performance using higher cache block size,

and higher associativity, reduce miss rate, reduce miss penalty, and
reduce the time to hit in the cache.
Multilevel Caches
• High logic density enables caches on chip
—Faster than bus access
—Frees bus for other transfers
• Common to use both on and off chip
cache
—L1 on chip, L2 off chip in static RAM
—L2 access much faster than DRAM or ROM
—L2 often uses separate data path
—L2 may now be on chip
—Resulting in L3 cache
– Bus access or now on chip…
Cache and Main Memory
Cache/Main Memory Structure
Cache operation – overview
• CPU requests contents of memory location
• Check cache for this data
• If present, get from cache (fast)
• If not present, read required block from
main memory to cache
• Then deliver from cache to CPU
• Cache includes tags to identify which
block of main memory is in each cache
slot
Cache Read Operation - Flowchart
Cache Design
• Addressing
• Size
• Mapping Function
• Replacement Algorithm
• Write Policy
• Block Size
• Number of Caches
Cache Addressing
• Where does cache sit?
— Between processor and virtual memory management
unit
— Between MMU and main memory
• Logical cache (virtual cache) stores data using
virtual addresses
— Processor accesses cache directly, not thorough physical
cache
— Cache access faster, before MMU address translation
— Virtual addresses use same address space for different
applications
– Must flush cache on each context switch
• Physical cache stores data using main memory
physical addresses
Size does matter
• Cost
—More cache is expensive
• Speed
—More cache is faster (up to a point)
—Checking cache for data takes time
Typical Cache Organization
 Comparison of Cache Sizes
Year of
Processor Type L1 cache L2 cache L3 cache
Introduction
IBM 360/85 Mainframe 1968 16 to 32 KB — —
PDP-11/70 Minicomputer 1975 1 KB — —
VAX 11/780 Minicomputer 1978 16 KB — —
IBM 3033 Mainframe 1978 64 KB — —
IBM 3090 Mainframe 1985 128 to 256 KB — —
Intel 80486 PC 1989 8 KB — —
Pentium PC 1993 8 KB/8 KB 256 to 512 KB —
PowerPC 601 PC 1993 32 KB — —
PowerPC 620 PC 1996 32 KB/32 KB — —
PowerPC G4 PC/server 1999 32 KB/32 KB 256 KB to 1 MB 2 MB
IBM S/390 G4 Mainframe 1997 32 KB 256 KB 2 MB
IBM S/390 G6 Mainframe 1999 256 KB 8 MB —
Pentium 4 PC/server 2000 8 KB/8 KB 256 KB —
High-end server/
IBM SP 2000 64 KB/32 KB 8 MB —
supercomputer
CRAY MTAb Supercomputer 2000 8 KB 2 MB —
Itanium PC/server 2001 16 KB/16 KB 96 KB 4 MB
SGI Origin 2001 High-end server 2001 32 KB/32 KB 4 MB —
Itanium 2 PC/server 2002 32 KB 256 KB 6 MB
IBM POWER5 High-end server 2003 64 KB 1.9 MB 36 MB
CRAY XD-1 Supercomputer 2004 64 KB/64 KB 1MB —
Direct Mapping
• Each block of main memory maps to only
one cache line
—i.e. if a block is in cache, it must be in one
specific place
• Address is in two parts
• Least Significant w bits identify unique
word
• Most Significant s bits specify one
memory block
• The MSBs are split into a cache line field r
and a tag of s-r (most significant)
Mapping Function Cache and RAM
• Cache of 8k Byte
• Cache block of 2 bytes
—i.e. cache is 4k (212) lines of 2 bytes
• 1-MBytes main memory
• 20 bit address
—(220=1M)
 Direct Mapping
Address Structure - Size Mem 16 MB, Cache 64 KB

Tag s-r Line or Slot r Word w

7 12 1

• 20 bit address
• 1 bit word identifier (2 byte block)
• 19 bit block identifier
— 7 bit tag (=22-14)
— 12 bit slot or line
• No two blocks in the same line have the same Tag field
• Check contents of cache by finding line and checking Tag
Mapping Function Cache and RAM
• Cache of 64k Byte
• Cache block of 4 bytes
—i.e. cache is 16k (214) lines of 4 bytes
• 16-MBytes main memory
• 24 bit address
—(224=16M)
 Direct Mapping
Address Structure - Size Mem 1 MB, Cache 8 KB

Tag s-r Line or Slot r Word w

8 14 2

• 24 bit address
• 2 bit word identifier (4 byte block)
• 22 bit block identifier
— 8 bit tag (=22-14)
— 14 bit slot or line
• No two blocks in the same line have the same Tag field
• Check contents of cache by finding line and checking Tag
Direct Mapping from Cache to Main Memory
Direct Mapping
Cache Line Table

Cache line Main Memory blocks held

0 0, m, 2m, 3m…2s-m

1 1,m+1, 2m+1…2s-m+1

…
m-1 m-1, 2m-1,3m-1…2s-1
Direct Mapping Cache Organization
Direct
Mapping
Example
Direct Mapping Summary
• Address length = (s + w) bits
• Number of addressable units = 2s+w
words or bytes
• Block size = line size = 2w words or bytes
• Number of blocks in main memory = 2s+
w/2w = 2s
• Number of lines in cache = m = 2r
• Size of tag = (s – r) bits
Direct Mapping pros & cons
• Simple
• Inexpensive
• Fixed location for given block
—If a program accesses 2 blocks that map to
the same line repeatedly, cache misses are
very high
Victim Cache
• Lower miss penalty
• Remember what was discarded
—Already fetched
—Use again with little penalty
• Fully associative
• 4 to 16 cache lines
• Between direct mapped L1 cache and next
memory level
Associative Mapping
• A main memory block can load into any
line of cache
• Memory address is interpreted as tag and
word
• Tag uniquely identifies block of memory
• Every line’s tag is examined for a match
• Cache searching gets expensive
Associative Mapping from
Cache to Main Memory
Fully Associative Cache Organization
Associative
Mapping
Example
Associative Mapping
Address Structure

Word
Tag 22 bit 2 bit
• 22 bit tag stored with each 32 bit block of data
• Compare tag field with tag entry in cache to
check for hit
• Least significant 2 bits of address identify which
16 bit word is required from 32 bit data block
• e.g.
— Address Tag Data Cache line
— FFFFFC FFFFFC24682468 3FFF
Associative Mapping Summary
• Address length = (s + w) bits
• Number of addressable units = 2s+w
words or bytes
• Block size = line size = 2w words or bytes
• Number of blocks in main memory = 2s+
w/2w = 2s
• Number of lines in cache = undetermined
• Size of tag = s bits
Set Associative Mapping
• Cache is divided into a number of sets
• Each set contains a number of lines
• A given block maps to any line in a given
set
—e.g. Block B can be in any line of set i
• e.g. 2 lines per set
—2 way associative mapping
—A given block can be in one of 2 lines in only
one set
Set Associative Mapping
Example
• 13 bit set number
• Block number in main memory is modulo
213
• 000000, 00A000, 00B000, 00C000 … map
to same set
Mapping From Main Memory to Cache:
v Associative
Mapping From Main Memory to Cache:
k-way Associative
K-Way Set Associative Cache
Organization
Set Associative Mapping
Address Structure

Word
Tag 9 bit Set 13 bit 2 bit

• Use set field to determine cache set to

look in
• Compare tag field to see if we have a hit
• e.g
—Address Tag Data Set
number
—1FF 7FFC 1FF 12345678 1FFF
—001 7FFC 001 11223344 1FFF
Two Way Set Associative Mapping
Example
Set Associative Mapping Summary
• Address length = (s + w) bits
• Number of addressable units = 2s+w
words or bytes
• Block size = line size = 2w words or bytes
• Number of blocks in main memory = 2d
• Number of lines in set = k
• Number of sets = v = 2d
• Number of lines in cache = kv = k * 2d
• Size of tag = (s – d) bits
Direct and Set Associative Cache
Performance Differences
• Significant up to at least 64kB for 2-way
• Difference between 2-way and 4-way at
4kB much less than 4kB to 8kB
• Cache complexity increases with
associativity
• Not justified against increasing cache to
8kB or 16kB
• Above 32kB gives no improvement
• (simulation results)
Figure 4.16
Varying Associativity over Cache Size
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
Hit ratio

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
1k 2k 4k 8k 16k 32k 64k 128k 256k 512k 1M
Cache size (bytes)
direct
2-way
4-way
8-way
16-way
Replacement Algorithms (1)
Direct mapping
• No choice
• Each block only maps to one line
• Replace that line
Replacement Algorithms (2)
Associative & Set Associative
• Hardware implemented algorithm (speed)
• Least Recently used (LRU)
• e.g. in 2 way set associative
—Which of the 2 block is lru?
• First in first out (FIFO)
—replace block that has been in cache longest
• Least frequently used
—replace block which has had fewest hits
• Random
Write Policy
• Must not overwrite a cache block unless
main memory is up to date
• Multiple CPUs may have individual caches
• I/O may address main memory directly
Write through
• All writes go to main memory as well as
cache
• Multiple CPUs can monitor main memory
traffic to keep local (to CPU) cache up to
date
• Lots of traffic
• Slows down writes

• Remember bogus write through caches!

Write back
• Updates initially made in cache only
• Update bit for cache slot is set when
update occurs
• If block is to be replaced, write to main
memory only if update bit is set
• Other caches get out of sync
• I/O must access main memory through
cache
• N.B. 15% of memory references are
writes