Analysis of non-uniform cache architecture policies for chip-multiprocessors using the Parsec Benchmark Suite

Abstract

Non-Uniform Cache Architectures (NUCA) have been proposed as a solution to overcome wire delays that will dominate on-chip latencies in Chip Multiprocessor designs in the near future. This novel means of organization divides the total memory area into a set of banks that provides non-uniform access latencies and thus faster access to those banks that are close to the processor. A NUCA model can be characterized according to the four policies that determine its behavior: bank placement, bank access, bank migration and bank replacement. Placement determines the first location of data, access defines the searching algorithm across the banks, migration decides data movements inside the memory and replacement deals with the evicted data. This paper analyzes the performance of several alternatives that can be considered for each of these four policies. Moreover, the Parsec benchmark suite has been used to handle this evaluation because it is a representative group of upcoming sharedmemory programs for Chip Multiprocessors. The results may help researchers to identify key features of NUCA organizations and to open up new areas of investigation.