skip to main content
article
Free access

Page placement algorithms for large real-indexed caches

Published: 01 November 1992 Publication History

Abstract

When a computer system supports both paged virtual memory and large real-indexed caches, cache performance depends in part on the main memory page placement. To date, most operating systems place pages by selecting an arbitrary page frame from a pool of page frames that have been made available by the page replacement algorithm. We give a simple model that shows that this naive (arbitrary) page placement leads to up to 30% unnecessary cache conflicts. We develop several page placement algorithms, called careful-mapping algorithms, that try to select a page frame (from the pool of available page frames) that is likely to reduce cache contention. Using trace-driven simulation, we find that careful mapping results in 10–20% fewer (dynamic) cache misses than naive mapping (for a direct-mapped real-indexed multimegabyte cache). Thus, our results suggest that careful mapping by the operating system can get about half the cache miss reduction that a cache size (or associativity) doubling can.

References

[1]
AGARWAL, A., HOROWITZ, M., AND HENNESSY, J. An analytical cache model. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 7, 2 (May 1989), 184 215.
[2]
BABAOGLU, O., AND JoY, W. Converting a swap-based system to do paging m an architecture lacking page-referenced bits. In Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on Operating System Principles. 1981, pp. 78-86.
[3]
BAER, J., AND WANG, W. On the inclusion properties for multi-level cache hierarchies. In Procee&ngs of the 15th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1988, pp. 73-80.
[4]
BORG, A., t~SSLER, R. E., L^ZAN& G., AND WALL, D.W. Long address traces from RISC machines: Generation and analysis. Res. Rep. 89/14, Western Research Laboratory, Digital Equipment Corporation, Palo Alto, Calif., 1989.
[5]
BORG, A., KESSLER, R. E., AND WALL, D.W. Generation and analysis of very long address traces. In Proceedings of the 17th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1990, pp. 270-279.
[6]
BRAY, B. K., LYNCH, W. L., AND FLYNN, M. J. Page allocation to reduce access time of physical caches. Tech. Rep. CSL-TR-90-454, Computer Systems Laboratory, Stanford Univ., Stanford, Calif., 1990.
[7]
DENNING, P.J. The working set model for program behavior. Commun. ACM 11, 5 (May 1968), 323-333.
[8]
FERRARI, D. The improvement of program behavior. IEEE Comput. (Nov. 1976), 39 47.
[9]
GOODMAN, J.R. Coherency for multiprocessor virtual address caches. In Proceedings of the 2nd Internattonal Conference on Architectural Support for Programming' Languages and Operating Systems (Oct.). 1987, pp. 72-81.
[10]
GOODMAN, J. R., AND CHIANG, M. The use of static column RAM as a memory hierarchy In Proceedings of the llth Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1984, pp. 167-174.
[11]
HmL, M. D., AND SMITH, A J. Evaluating associatiwty in CPU caches. IEEE Trans. Comput. 38, 12 (Dec. 1989), 1612 1630.
[12]
HWU, W. W., AND CHANG, r. r. Achieving high instruction cache performance with an optimizing compiler. In Proceedings of the 1Gth International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1989, pp. 242 251.
[13]
KAPLAN, K. R., AND WINDER, R.O. Cache-based computer systems. IEEE Comput. G, 3 (Mar. 1973), 30 36.
[14]
KELLY, E. Personal communications. 1990.
[15]
KESSLER, R.E. Analysis of multi-megabyte secondary CPU cache memories. Ph.D. thesis, Computer Sciences Tech. Rep. #1032, Univ. of Wisconsin--Madison, 1991.
[16]
KESSLER, R. E., AND HILL, M.D. Miss reduction in large, real-indexed caches. Computer Sciences Tech. Rep. #940, Univ. of Wisconsin--Madison, 1990.
[17]
L~, M. S., ROTHBE~G, E. E., AND WOLF, M.E. The cache performance and optimizations of blocked algorithms. In Proceedlngs of the 4th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (Apr). 1991, pp. 63-74
[18]
MCFARLING, S. Program optimization for instruction caches. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Architectural Support for Programmzng Languages and Operating Systems (Apr.). 1989, pp. 183 191.
[19]
NIELSEN, M. J. K. Titan system manual. Res. Rep. 86/1, Western Research Laboratory, Digital Equipment Corporation, Palo Alto, Calif., 1986.
[20]
PRZYBYLSKI, S., HOROWITZ, M., AND HENNESSY, J. Characteristics of performance-optimal multi-level cache hierarchies. In Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1989, pp. 114-121.
[21]
SITES, R. L., AND AGARWAL, A. Multiprocessor cache analysis using ATUM. In Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1988, pp. 186 195.
[22]
SMITH, A.J. Cache memories. Comput. Surv. 14, 3 (Sept. 1982), 473 530.
[23]
STAMOS, J.W. Static grouping of small objects to enhance performance of a paged virtual memory. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 2, 2 (May 1984), 155 180.
[24]
TAYLOR, G., DAVIES, P., AND FARMWALD, M. The TLB slice--A low-cost high-speed address translation mechanism. In Proceedings of the 17th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture. 1990, pp. 355-363.
[25]
THmBAUT, D., AND STONE, H.S. Footprints in the cache. ACM Trans. Comp. Syst. 5, 4 (Nov. 1987), 305-329.
[26]
WANa, W., BAER, J., AND LEVY, H.M. Organization and performance of a two-level virtualreal cache hierarchy. In Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Sympostum on ComputerArch~tecture. 1989, pp. 140 148.

Cited By

View all

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computer Systems
ACM Transactions on Computer Systems  Volume 10, Issue 4
Nov. 1992
127 pages
ISSN:0734-2071
EISSN:1557-7333
DOI:10.1145/138873
Issue’s Table of Contents

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 November 1992
Published in TOCS Volume 10, Issue 4

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Qualifiers

  • Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)201
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)25
Reflects downloads up to 06 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Login options

Full Access

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media