Next: Extensions for Prefetching Up: Architectural Assumptions Previous: Architectural Assumptions

Base Architecture

For the sake of concreteness, we pattern the memory subsystem of our base architecture after a typical MIPS R4000-based workstation. The architecture consists of a single-issue processor running at a 100 MHz internal clock. The processor has an on-chip primary data cache of 8 Kbytes, and a secondary cache of 256 Kbytes. Both caches are direct-mapped, ``write-back write-allocate'', and use 32 byte lines. The penalty of a primary cache miss that hits in the secondary cache is 12 cycles, and the total penalty of a miss that goes all the way to memory is 75 cycles. To limit the complexity of the simulation, we assume that all instructions execute in a single cycle and that all instructions hit in the primary instruction cache.


tcm@
Sat Jun 25 15:13:04 PDT 1994