Stack evaluation of arbitrary set-associative multiprocessor caches

We propose a simple solution to the problem of efficient stack evaluation of LRU multiprocessor cache memories with arbitrary set-associative mapping. It is an extension of the existing stack evaluation techniques for all set-associative LRU uniprocessor caches. Special marker entries are used in the stack to represent data blocks (or lines) deleted by an invalidation-based cache coherence protocol. A method of marker-splitting is employed when a data block below a marker in the stack is accessed. Using this technique, one-pass trace evaluation of memory access trace yields hit ratios for all cache sizes and set-associative mappings of multiprocessor caches in a single pass over a memory reference trace. Simulation experiments on some multiprocessor trace data show an order-of-magnitude speed-up in simulation time using this one-pass technique