Title :
A self-tuning cache architecture for embedded systems
Author :
Zhang, Chuanjun ; Vahid, Frank ; Lysecky, Roman
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., California Univ., Riverside, CA, USA
Abstract :
Memory access can account for about half of a microprocessor system´s power consumption. Customizing a microprocessor cache´s total size, line size and associativity to a particular program is well known to have tremendous benefits for performance and power. Customizing caches has until recently been restricted to core-based flows, in which a new chip will be fabricated. However, several configurable cache architectures have been proposed recently for use in pre-fabricated microprocessor platforms. Tuning those caches to a program is still however a cumbersome task left for designers, assisted in part by recent computer-aided design (CAD) tuning aids. We propose to move that CAD on-chip, which can greatly increase the acceptance of configurable caches. We introduce on-chip hardware implementing an efficient cache tuning heuristic that can automatically, transparently, and dynamically tune the cache to an executing program. We carefully designed the heuristic to avoid any cache flushing, since flushing is power and performance costly. By simulating numerous Powerstone and MediaBench benchmarks, we show that such a dynamic self-tuning cache can reduce memory-access energy by 45% to 55% on average, and as much as 97%, compared with a four-way set-associative base cache, completely transparently to the programmer.
Keywords :
cache storage; circuit layout CAD; circuit optimisation; embedded systems; low-power electronics; memory architecture; reconfigurable architectures; CAD tuning aids; MediaBench benchmarks; Powerstone; architecture tuning; cache flushing; cache tuning; computer-aided design; configurable cache architectures; core-based flows; dynamic optimization; dynamic self-tuning cache; embedded systems; four-way set-associative base cache; line size; memory access; memory-access energy; microprocessor cache; on-chip hardware; power consumption; prefabricated microprocessor platforms; self-tuning cache architecture; Application specific integrated circuits; Computer science; Design automation; Embedded system; Energy dissipation; Hardware; Logic; Microprocessors; Power engineering and energy; Tuning;
Conference_Titel :
Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition, 2004. Proceedings
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-2085-5
DOI :
10.1109/DATE.2004.1268840