Phase-based cache locking for embedded systems

Tosiron Adegbija, Ann Gordon-Ross

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Since caches are commonly used in embedded systems, which typically have stringent design constraints imposed by physical size, battery capacity, real-time deadlines, etc., much research focuses on cache optimizations, such as improved performance and/or reduced energy consumption. Cache locking is a popular cache optimization that loads and retains/locks selected memory contents from an executing application into the cache to increase the cache's predictability. Previous work has shown that cache locking also has the potential to improve cache performance and energy consumption. In this paper, we introduce phase-based cache locking, which leverages an application's varying runtime characteristics to dynamically select the locked memory contents to optimize cache performance and energy consumption. Experimental results show that our phase-based cache locking methodology can improve the data cache's miss rates and energy consumption by an average of 24% and 20%, respectively.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationGLSVLSI 2015 - 25th 2015 Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages115-120
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450334747
DOIs
StatePublished - May 20 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event25th Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, GLSVLSI 2015 - Pittsburgh, United States
Duration: May 20 2015May 22 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, GLSVLSI
Volume20-22-May-2015

Conference

Conference25th Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, GLSVLSI 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPittsburgh
Period5/20/155/22/15

Keywords

  • Cache locking
  • Configurable caches
  • Dynamic optimization
  • Energy savings
  • Phase-based tuning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering

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