Analytical design space exploration of caches for embedded systems

The increasing use of microprocessor cores in embedded systems, as well as mobile and portable devices, creates an opportunity for customizing the cache subsystem for improved performance. Traditionally, a design-simulate-analyze methodology is used to achieve desired cache performance. Here, to bootstrap the process, arbitrary cache parameters are selected, the cache sub-system is simulated using a cache simulator, based on performance results, cache parameters are tuned, and the process is repeated until an acceptable design is obtained. Since the cache design space is typically very large, the traditional approach often requires a very long time to converge. In the proposed approach, we outline an efficient algorithm that directly computes cache parameters satisfying the desired performance. We demonstrate the feasibility of our algorithm by applying it to a large number of embedded system benchmarks.