This patch changes the cache implementation to rely on virtual methods
rather than using the replacement policy as a template argument.
There is no impact on the simulation performance, and overall the
changes make it easier to modify (and subclass) the cache and/or
replacement policy.
This patch adds some much-needed clarity in the specification of the
cache timing. For now, hit_latency and response_latency are kept as
top-level parameters, but the cache itself has a number of local
variables to better map the individual timing variables to different
behaviours (and sub-components).
The introduced variables are:
- lookupLatency: latency of tag lookup, occuring on any access
- forwardLatency: latency that occurs in case of outbound miss
- fillLatency: latency to fill a cache block
We keep the existing responseLatency
The forwardLatency is used by allocateInternalBuffer() for:
- MSHR allocateWriteBuffer (unchached write forwarded to WriteBuffer);
- MSHR allocateMissBuffer (cacheable miss in MSHR queue);
- MSHR allocateUncachedReadBuffer (unchached read allocated in MSHR
queue)
It is our assumption that the time for the above three buffers is the
same. Similarly, for snoop responses passing through the cache we use
forwardLatency.
When a cacheline is written back to a lower-level cache,
tags->insertBlock() sets various status parameters. However these
status bits were cleared immediately after calling. This patch makes
it so that these status fields are not cleared by moving them outside
of the tags->insertBlock() call.
this patch implements a new tags class that uses a random replacement policy.
these tags prefer to evict invalid blocks first, if none are available a
replacement candidate is chosen at random.
this patch factors out the common code in the LRU class and creates a new
abstract class: the BaseSetAssoc class. any set associative tag class must
implement the functionality related to the actual replacement policy in the
following methods:
accessBlock()
findVictim()
insertBlock()
invalidate()
