Modeling memory reference patterns of programs in cache memory systems

Proposes a novel model to characterize the behavior of individual programs in the presence of cache memory. The model goes beyond the traditional hit/miss ratios often used in the current literature to describe program-cache interactions. Instead, it looks at the characteristics of the sequences of hits and misses during a program execution. The model includes several distributions that describe the hit and miss sequences. Several program characteristics which are otherwise not identified by the traditional models are discovered using our model. We then discuss how the model can be effectively used to tune the performance of a program, to allocate cache to a process, or to choose a cache architecture