CS61C - Machine StructuresLecture 17 - Caches, Part I.ppt

CS61C L17 Cache1 ? UC Regents CS61C - Machine StructuresLecture 17 - Caches, Part I October 25, 2000 David Patterson /~cs61c/ Things to Remember Magnetic Disks continue rapid advance: 60%/yr capacity, 40%/yr bandwidth, slow on seek, rotation improvements, MB/$ improving 100%/yr? Designs to fit high volume form factor Quoted seek times too conservative, data rates too optimistic for use in system RAID Higher performance with more disk arms per $ Adds availability option for small number of extra disks Outline Memory Hierarchy Direct-Mapped Cache Types of Cache Misses A (long) detailed example Peer - to - peer education example Block Size (if time permits) Memory Hierarchy (1/4) Processor executes programs runs on order of nanoseconds to picoseconds needs to access code and data for programs: where are these? Disk HUGE capacity (virtually limitless) VERY slow: runs on order of milliseconds so how do we account for this gap? Memory Hierarchy (2/4) Memory (DRAM) smaller than disk (not limitless capacity) contains subset of data on disk: basically portions of programs that are currently being run much faster than disk: memory accesses don’t slow down processor quite as much Problem: memory is still too slow(hundreds of nanoseconds) Solution: add more layers (caches) Memory Hierarchy (3/4) Memory Hierarchy (4/4) If level is closer to Processor, it must be: smaller faster subset of all higher levels (contains most recently used data) contain at least all the data in all lower levels Lowest Level (usually disk) contains all available data Memory Hierarchy Purpose: Faster access to large memory from processor Memory Hierarchy Analogy: Library (1/2) You’re writing a term paper (Processor) at a table in Doe Doe Library is equivalent to disk essentially limitless capacity very slow to retrieve a book Table is memory smaller capacity: means you must return book when table fills up easier and faster to find a book there once you’ve already retrieved it Memory Hierarchy An