Dynamic last-level cache allocation to reduce area and power overhead in directory coherence protocols

Abstract

Last level caches (LLC) play an important role in current and future chip multiprocessors, since they constitute the last opportunity to avoid expensive off-chip accesses. In a tiled CMP, the LLC is typically shared by all cores but physically distributed along the chip, thus providing a global banked capacity memory with high associativity. The memory hierarchy is orchestrated through a directory-based coherence protocol, typically associated to the LLC banks. The LLC (and directory structure) occupies a significant chip area and has a large contribution on the global chip leakage energy. To counter measure these effects, we provide in this paper a reorganization of the LLC cache and the directory by decoupling tag and data entry allocation, and by exploiting the high percentage of private data typically found in CMP systems. Private blocks are kept in L1 caches whereas LLC area is reorganized to reduce L2 entries while still allowing directory entries for private data, thus, maximizing on-chip memory reuse. This is achieved with no performance drop in terms of execution time. Evaluation results demonstrate a negligible impact on performance while achieving 45% of area saving and 75% of static power saving. For more aggressive designs, we achieve 80% area and 82% static power savings, while impacting performance by 10%. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.