Cuesta Sáez, BA.; Ros Bardisa, A.; Gómez Requena, ME.; Robles Martínez, A.; Duato Marín, JF. (2013). Increasing the effectiveness of directory caches by avoiding the tracking of noncoherent memory blocks. IEEE Transactions on Computers. 62(3):482-495. https://doi.org/10.1109/TC.2011.241
Por favor, use este identificador para citar o enlazar este ítem: http://hdl.handle.net/10251/38109
Title:
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Increasing the effectiveness of directory caches by avoiding the tracking of noncoherent memory blocks
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Author:
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Cuesta Sáez, Blas Antonio
Ros Bardisa, Alberto
Gómez Requena, María Engracia
Robles Martínez, Antonio
Duato Marín, José Francisco
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UPV Unit:
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Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Informática de Sistemas y Computadores - Departament d'Informàtica de Sistemes i Computadors
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Issued date:
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Abstract:
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A key aspect in the design of efficient multiprocessor systems is the cache coherence protocol. Although directory-based protocols constitute the most scalable approach, the limited size of the directory caches together ...[+]
A key aspect in the design of efficient multiprocessor systems is the cache coherence protocol. Although directory-based protocols constitute the most scalable approach, the limited size of the directory caches together with the growing size of systems may cause frequent evictions and, consequently, the invalidation of cached blocks, which jeopardizes system performance. Directory caches keep track of every memory block stored in processor caches in order to provide coherent access to the shared memory. However, a significant fraction of the cached memory blocks do not require coherence maintenance (even in parallel applications)
because they are either accessed by just one processor or they are never modified. In this paper, we propose to deactivate the coherence protocol for those blocks that do not require coherence. This deactivation means directory caches do not have to keep track of noncoherent blocks, which reduces directory cache occupancy and increases its effectiveness. Since the detection of noncoherent blocks is carried out by the operating system, our proposal only requires minor hardware modifications. Simulation results show that, thanks to our proposal, directory caches can avoid the tracking of about 66 percent (on average) of the blocks accessed by a wide
range of applications, thereby improving the efficiency of directory caches. This contributes either to shortening the runtime of parallel applications by 15 percent (on average) while keeping directory cache size or to maintaining performance while using directory caches 16 times smaller.
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Subjects:
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Multiprocessor
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Cache coherence
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Directory cache
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Operating system
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Coherence deactivation
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Noncoherent blocks
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Copyrigths:
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Reserva de todos los derechos
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Source:
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IEEE Transactions on Computers. (issn:
0018-9340
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DOI:
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10.1109/TC.2011.241
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Publisher:
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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
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Publisher version:
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http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6109241
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Project ID:
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info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/287759/EU
Spanish MICINN
...[+]
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/287759/EU
Spanish MICINN
Consolider Programme
Plan E funds
European Commission FEDER funds [CSD2006-00046 and TIN2009- 14475-C04-01]
PROMETEO from Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) [ROMETEO/2008/060]
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Description:
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© 2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be
obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including
reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new
collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted
component of this work in other works.
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Thanks:
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This work was supported by the Spanish MICINN, Consolider Programme and Plan E funds, as well as European Commission FEDER funds, under Grants CSD2006-00046 and TIN2009-14475-C04-01. It was also partly supported by (PROMETEO ...[+]
This work was supported by the Spanish MICINN, Consolider Programme and Plan E funds, as well as European Commission FEDER funds, under Grants CSD2006-00046 and TIN2009-14475-C04-01. It was also partly supported by (PROMETEO from Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) under Grant ROMETEO/2008/060). B. Cuesta was with Universitat Politecnica de Valencia while working on this paper.
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Type:
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Artículo
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