Virtual private caches

Virtual Private Machines (VPM) provide a framework for Quality of Service (QoS) in CMP-based computer systems. VPMs incorporate microarchitecture mechanisms that allow shares of hardware resources to be allocated to executing threads, thus providing applications with an upper bound on execution time regardless of other thread activity. Virtual Private Caches (VPCs) are an important element of VPMs. VPC hardware consists of two major components: the VPC Arbiter, which manages shared cache bandwidth, and the VPC Capacity Manager, which manages the cache storage. Both the VPC Arbiter and VPC Capacity Manager provide minimum service guarantees that, when combined, achieve QoS for the cache subsystem. Simulation-based evaluation shows that conventional cache bandwidth management policies allow concurrently executing threads to affect each other significantly in an uncontrollable manner. The evaluation targets cache bandwidth because the effects of cache capacity sharing have been studied e...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ISCA
• Authors: Kyle J. Nesbit, James Laudon, James E. Smith
• Keywords: Cache Bandwidth, Hardware, ISCA 2007, VPC Arbiter, VPC Capacity Manager