A new cache architecture concept: the split temporal/spatial cache

This paper concentrates on the problem of better utilization of cache memory. Existing solutions imply no separation of data based on their type of locality. Here, a new cache architecture concept is introduced which implies that data are split into two different cache memory subsystems, according to the type of locality they exhibit: predominantly temporal or predominantly spatial. The two cache subsystems employ a different internal organization, for better utilization of data characteristics. This paper concentrates both on performance and complexity issues. The major conclusion is that performance benefits of the proposed approach considerably outweigh its somewhat increased complexity.