This patch breaks out the cache write buffer into a separate class,
without affecting any stats. The goal of the patch is to avoid
encumbering the much-simpler write queue with the complex MSHR
handling. In a follow on patch this simplification allows us to
implement write combining.
The WriteQueue gets its own class, but shares a common ancestor, the
generic Queue, with the MSHRQueue.
This patch changes how the cache determines if snoops should be
forwarded from the memory side to the CPU side. Instead of having a
parameter, the cache now looks at the port connected on the CPU side,
and if it is a snooping port, then snoops are forwarded. Less error
prone, and less parameters to worry about.
The patch also tidies up the CPU classes to ensure that their I-side
port is not snooping by removing overrides to the snoop request
handler, such that snoop requests will panic via the default
MasterPort implement
This patch changes the name of a bunch of packet flags and MSHR member
functions and variables to make the coherency protocol easier to
understand. In addition the patch adds and updates lots of
descriptions, explicitly spelling out assumptions.
The following name changes are made:
* the packet memInhibit flag is renamed to cacheResponding
* the packet sharedAsserted flag is renamed to hasSharers
* the packet NeedsExclusive attribute is renamed to NeedsWritable
* the packet isSupplyExclusive is renamed responderHadWritable
* the MSHR pendingDirty is renamed to pendingModified
The cache states, Modified, Owned, Exclusive, Shared are also called
out in the cache and MSHR code to make it easier to understand.
This patch adds the necessary commands and cache functionality to
allow clean writebacks. This functionality is crucial, especially when
having exclusive (victim) caches. For example, if read-only L1
instruction caches are not sending clean writebacks, there will never
be any spills from the L1 to the L2. At the moment the cache model
defaults to not sending clean writebacks, and this should possibly be
re-evaluated.
The implementation of clean writebacks relies on a new packet command
WritebackClean, which acts much like a Writeback (renamed
WritebackDirty), and also much like a CleanEvict. On eviction of a
clean block the cache either sends a clean evict, or a clean
writeback, and if any copies are still cached upstream the clean
evict/writeback is dropped. Similarly, if a clean evict/writeback
reaches a cache where there are outstanding MSHRs for the block, the
packet is dropped. In the typical case though, the clean writeback
allocates a block in the downstream cache, and marks it writable if
the evicted block was writable.
The patch changes the O3_ARM_v7a L1 cache configuration and the
default L1 caches in config/common/Caches.py
This patch adds a parameter to control the cache clusivity, that is if
the cache is mostly inclusive or exclusive. At the moment there is no
intention to support strict policies, and thus the options are: 1)
mostly inclusive, or 2) mostly exclusive.
The choice of policy guides the behaviuor on a cache fill, and a new
helper function, allocOnFill, is created to encapsulate the decision
making process. For the timing mode, the decision is annotated on the
MSHR on sending out the downstream packet, and in atomic we directly
pass the decision to handleFill. We (ab)use the tempBlock in cases
where we are not allocating on fill, leaving the rest of the cache
unaffected. Simple and effective.
This patch also makes it more explicit that multiple caches are
allowed to consider a block writable (this is the case
also before this patch). That is, for a mostly inclusive cache,
multiple caches upstream may also consider the block exclusive. The
caches considering the block writable/exclusive all appear along the
same path to memory, and from a coherency protocol point of view it
works due to the fact that we always snoop upwards in zero time before
querying any downstream cache.
Note that this patch does not introduce clean writebacks. Thus, for
clean lines we are essentially removing a cache level if it is made
mostly exclusive. For example, lines from the read-only L1 instruction
cache or table-walker cache are always clean, and simply get dropped
rather than being passed to the L2. If the L2 is mostly exclusive and
does not allocate on fill it will thus never hold the line. A follow
on patch adds the clean writebacks.
The patch changes the L2 of the O3_ARM_v7a CPU configuration to be
mostly exclusive (and stats are affected accordingly).
This patch changes the CleanEvict command type to not be considered a
write. Initially it was made a zero-sized write to match the writeback
command, but as things developed it became clear that it causes more
problems than it solves. For example, the memory modules (and bridge)
should not consider the CleanEvict as a write, but instead discard
it. With this patch it will be neither a read, nor write, and as it
does not need a response the slave will simply sink it.
Open up for other subclasses to BaseCache and transition to using the
explicit Cache subclass.
--HG--
rename : src/mem/cache/BaseCache.py => src/mem/cache/Cache.py
This patch removes the RequestCause, and also simplifies how we
schedule the sending of packets through the memory-side port. The
deassertion of bus requests is removed as it is not used.
Draining is currently done by traversing the SimObject graph and
calling drain()/drainResume() on the SimObjects. This is not ideal
when non-SimObjects (e.g., ports) need draining since this means that
SimObjects owning those objects need to be aware of this.
This changeset moves the responsibility for finding objects that need
draining from SimObjects and the Python-side of the simulator to the
DrainManager. The DrainManager now maintains a set of all objects that
need draining. To reduce the overhead in classes owning non-SimObjects
that need draining, objects inheriting from Drainable now
automatically register with the DrainManager. If such an object is
destroyed, it is automatically unregistered. This means that drain()
and drainResume() should never be called directly on a Drainable
object.
While implementing the new functionality, the DrainManager has now
been made thread safe. In practice, this means that it takes a lock
whenever it manipulates the set of Drainable objects since SimObjects
in different threads may create Drainable objects
dynamically. Similarly, the drain counter is now an atomic_uint, which
ensures that it is manipulated correctly when objects signal that they
are done draining.
A nice side effect of these changes is that it makes the drain state
changes stricter, which the simulation scripts can exploit to avoid
redundant drains.
This patch takes the final step in removing the is_top_level parameter
from the cache. With the recent changes to read requests and write
invalidations, the parameter is no longer needed, and consequently
removed.
This also means that asymmetric cache hierarchies are now fully
supported (and we are actually using them already with L1 caches, but
no table-walker caches, connected to a shared L2).
This patch adds a parameter to the BaseCache to enable a read-only
cache, for example for the instruction cache, or table-walker cache
(not for x86). A number of checks are put in place in the code to
ensure a read-only cache does not end up with dirty data.
A follow-on patch adds suitable read requests to allow a read-only
cache to explicitly ask for clean data.
This patch takes a last step in fixing issues related to uncacheable
accesses. We do not separate uncacheable memory from uncacheable
devices, and in cases where it is really memory, there are valid
scenarios where we need to snoop since we do not support cache
maintenance instructions (yet). On snooping an uncacheable access we
thus provide data if possible. In essence this makes uncacheable
accesses IO coherent.
The snoop filter is also queried to steer the snoops, but not updated
since the uncacheable accesses do not allocate a block.
This patch removes the no-longer-needed
allocateUncachedReadBuffer. Besides the checks it is exactly the same
as allocateMissBuffer and thus provides no value.
This patch aligns all MSHR queue entries to block boundaries to
simplify checks for matches. Previously there were corner cases that
could lead to existing entries not being identified as matches.
There are, rather alarmingly, a few regressions that change with this
patch.
This patch fixes a long-standing isue with the port flow
control. Before this patch the retry mechanism was shared between all
different packet classes. As a result, a snoop response could get
stuck behind a request waiting for a retry, even if the send/recv
functions were split. This caused message-dependent deadlocks in
stress-test scenarios.
The patch splits the retry into one per packet (message) class. Thus,
sendTimingReq has a corresponding recvReqRetry, sendTimingResp has
recvRespRetry etc. Most of the changes to the code involve simply
clarifying what type of request a specific object was accepting.
The biggest change in functionality is in the cache downstream packet
queue, facing the memory. This queue was shared by requests and snoop
responses, and it is now split into two queues, each with their own
flow control, but the same physical MasterPort. These changes fixes
the previously seen deadlocks.
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.
This patch adds a bit of clarification around the assumptions made in
the cache when packets are sent out, and dirty responses are
pending. As part of the change, the marking of an MSHR as in service
is simplified slightly, and comments are added to explain what
assumptions are made.
Support full-block writes directly rather than requiring RMW:
* a cache line is allocated in the cache upon receipt of a
WriteInvalidateReq, not the WriteInvalidateResp.
* only top-level caches allocate the line; the others just pass
the request along and invalidate as necessary.
* to close a timing window between the *Req and the *Resp, a new
metadata bit tracks whether another cache has read a copy of
the new line before the writeback to memory.
This patch fixes a bug in the cache port where the retry flag was
reset too early, allowing new requests to arrive before the retry was
actually sent, but with the event already scheduled. This caused a
deadlock in the interactions with the O3 LSQ.
The patche fixes the underlying issue by shifting the resetting of the
flag to be done by the event that also calls sendRetry(). The patch
also tidies up the flow control in recvTimingReq and ensures that we
also check if we already have a retry outstanding.
Add some values and methods to the request object to track the translation
and access latency for a request and which level of the cache hierarchy responded
to the request.
This patch merely adopts a more strict use of const for the cache
member functions and variables, and also moves a large portion of the
member functions from public to protected.
the cache drainManager is set but never cleared, this is because
the cache itself does not need to be drained and thus never
triggers a signalDrainDone(). because the drainManager variable
is not used properly and does not appear to be necessary it has
been removed with this patch.
This patch adds support for the following optional drain methods in
the classical memory system's cache model:
memWriteback() - Write back all dirty cache lines to memory using
functional accesses.
memInvalidate() - Invalidate all cache lines. Dirty cache lines
are lost unless a writeback is requested.
Since memWriteback() is called when checkpointing systems, this patch
adds support for checkpointing systems with caches. The serialization
code now checks whether there are any dirty lines in the cache. If
there are dirty lines in the cache, the checkpoint is flagged as bad
and a warning is printed.
This patch moves the draining interface from SimObject to a separate
class that can be used by any object needing draining. However,
objects not visible to the Python code (i.e., objects not deriving
from SimObject) still depend on their parents informing them when to
drain. This patch also gets rid of the CountedDrainEvent (which isn't
really an event) and replaces it with a DrainManager.
This patch adds an additional level of ports in the inheritance
hierarchy, separating out the protocol-specific and protocl-agnostic
parts. All the functionality related to the binding of ports is now
confined to use BaseMaster/BaseSlavePorts, and all the
protocol-specific parts stay in the Master/SlavePort. In the future it
will be possible to add other protocol-specific implementations.
The functions used in the binding of ports, i.e. getMaster/SlavePort
now use the base classes, and the index parameter is updated to use
the PortID typedef with the symbolic InvalidPortID as the default.
This patch changes the cache-related latencies from an absolute time
expressed in Ticks, to a number of cycles that can be scaled with the
clock period of the caches. Ultimately this patch serves to enable
future work that involves dynamic frequency scaling. As an immediate
benefit it also makes it more convenient to specify cache performance
without implicitly assuming a specific CPU core operating frequency.
The stat blocked_cycles that actually counter in ticks is now updated
to count in cycles.
As the timing is now rounded to the clock edges of the cache, there
are some regressions that change. Plenty of them have very minor
changes, whereas some regressions with a short run-time are perturbed
quite significantly. A follow-on patch updates all the statistics for
the regressions.
In the current caches the hit latency is paid twice on a miss. This patch lets
a configurable response latency be set of the cache for the backward path.
This patch extends the queued port interfaces with methods for
scheduling the transmission of a timing request/response. The methods
are named similar to the corresponding sendTiming(Snoop)Req/Resp,
replacing the "send" with "sched". As the queues are currently
unbounded, the methods always succeed and hence do not return a value.
This functionality was previously provided in the subclasses by
calling PacketQueue::schedSendTiming with the appropriate
parameters. With this change, there is no need to introduce these
extra methods in the subclasses, and the use of the queued interface
is more uniform and explicit.
This patch is the last part of moving all protocol-related
functionality out of the Port base class. All the send/recv functions
are already moved, and the retry (which still governs all the timing
transport functions) is the only part that remained in the base class.
The only point where this currently causes a bit of inconvenience is
in the bus where the retry list is global and holds Port pointers (not
Master/SlavePort). This is about to change with the split into a
request/response bus and will soon be removed anyway.
The patch has no impact on any regressions.
This patch moves send/recvTiming and send/recvTimingSnoop from the
Port base class to the MasterPort and SlavePort, and also splits them
into separate member functions for requests and responses:
send/recvTimingReq, send/recvTimingResp, and send/recvTimingSnoopReq,
send/recvTimingSnoopResp. A master port sends requests and receives
responses, and also receives snoop requests and sends snoop
responses. A slave port has the reciprocal behaviour as it receives
requests and sends responses, and sends snoop requests and receives
snoop responses.
For all MemObjects that have only master ports or slave ports (but not
both), e.g. a CPU, or a PIO device, this patch merely adds more
clarity to what kind of access is taking place. For example, a CPU
port used to call sendTiming, and will now call
sendTimingReq. Similarly, a response previously came back through
recvTiming, which is now recvTimingResp. For the modules that have
both master and slave ports, e.g. the bus, the behaviour was
previously relying on branches based on pkt->isRequest(), and this is
now replaced with a direct call to the apprioriate member function
depending on the type of access. Please note that send/recvRetry is
still shared by all the timing accessors and remains in the Port base
class for now (to maintain the current bus functionality and avoid
changing the statistics of all regressions).
The packet queue is split into a MasterPort and SlavePort version to
facilitate the use of the new timing accessors. All uses of the
PacketQueue are updated accordingly.
With this patch, the type of packet (request or response) is now well
defined for each type of access, and asserts on pkt->isRequest() and
pkt->isResponse() are now moved to the appropriate send member
functions. It is also worth noting that sendTimingSnoopReq no longer
returns a boolean, as the semantics do not alow snoop requests to be
rejected or stalled. All these assumptions are now excplicitly part of
the port interface itself.
This patch introduces port access methods that separates snoop
request/responses from normal memory request/responses. The
differentiation is made for functional, atomic and timing accesses and
builds on the introduction of master and slave ports.
Before the introduction of this patch, the packets belonging to the
different phases of the protocol (request -> [forwarded snoop request
-> snoop response]* -> response) all use the same port access
functions, even though the snoop packets flow in the opposite
direction to the normal packet. That is, a coherent master sends
normal request and receives responses, but receives snoop requests and
sends snoop responses (vice versa for the slave). These two distinct
phases now use different access functions, as described below.
Starting with the functional access, a master sends a request to a
slave through sendFunctional, and the request packet is turned into a
response before the call returns. In a system without cache coherence,
this is all that is needed from the functional interface. For the
cache-coherent scenario, a slave also sends snoop requests to coherent
masters through sendFunctionalSnoop, with responses returned within
the same packet pointer. This is currently used by the bus and caches,
and the LSQ of the O3 CPU. The send/recvFunctional and
send/recvFunctionalSnoop are moved from the Port super class to the
appropriate subclass.
Atomic accesses follow the same flow as functional accesses, with
request being sent from master to slave through sendAtomic. In the
case of cache-coherent ports, a slave can send snoop requests to a
master through sendAtomicSnoop. Just as for the functional access
methods, the atomic send and receive member functions are moved to the
appropriate subclasses.
The timing access methods are different from the functional and atomic
in that requests and responses are separated in time and
send/recvTiming are used for both directions. Hence, a master uses
sendTiming to send a request to a slave, and a slave uses sendTiming
to send a response back to a master, at a later point in time. Snoop
requests and responses travel in the opposite direction, similar to
what happens in functional and atomic accesses. With the introduction
of this patch, it is possible to determine the direction of packets in
the bus, and no longer necessary to look for both a master and a slave
port with the requested port id.
In contrast to the normal recvFunctional, recvAtomic and recvTiming
that are pure virtual functions, the recvFunctionalSnoop,
recvAtomicSnoop and recvTimingSnoop have a default implementation that
calls panic. This is to allow non-coherent master and slave ports to
not implement these functions.
This patch introduces the notion of a master and slave port in the C++
code, thus bringing the previous classification from the Python
classes into the corresponding simulation objects and memory objects.
The patch enables us to classify behaviours into the two bins and add
assumptions and enfore compliance, also simplifying the two
interfaces. As a starting point, isSnooping is confined to a master
port, and getAddrRanges to slave ports. More of these specilisations
are to come in later patches.
The getPort function is not getMasterPort and getSlavePort, and
returns a port reference rather than a pointer as NULL would never be
a valid return value. The default implementation of these two
functions is placed in MemObject, and calls fatal.
The one drawback with this specific patch is that it requires some
code duplication, e.g. QueuedPort becomes QueuedMasterPort and
QueuedSlavePort, and BusPort becomes BusMasterPort and BusSlavePort
(avoiding multiple inheritance). With the later introduction of the
port interfaces, moving the functionality outside the port itself, a
lot of the duplicated code will disappear again.
This patch decouples the queueing and the port interactions to
simplify the introduction of the master and slave ports. By separating
the queueing functionality from the port itself, it becomes much
easier to distinguish between master and slave ports, and still retain
the queueing ability for both (without code duplication).
As part of the split into a PacketQueue and a port, there is now also
a hierarchy of two port classes, QueuedPort and SimpleTimingPort. The
QueuedPort is useful for ports that want to leave the packet
transmission of outgoing packets to the queue and is used by both
master and slave ports. The SimpleTimingPort inherits from the
QueuedPort and adds the implemention of recvTiming and recvFunctional
through recvAtomic.
The PioPort and MessagePort are cleaned up as part of the changes.
--HG--
rename : src/mem/tport.cc => src/mem/packet_queue.cc
rename : src/mem/tport.hh => src/mem/packet_queue.hh
This patch splits the two cache ports into a master (memory-side) and
slave (cpu-side) subclass of port with slightly different
functionality. For example, it is only the CPU-side port that blocks
incoming requests, and only the memory-side port that schedules send
events outside of what the transmit list dictates.
This patch simplifies the two classes by relying further on
SimpleTimingPort and also generalises the latter to better accommodate
the changes (introducing trySendTiming and scheduleSend). The
memory-side cache port overrides sendDeferredPacket to be able to not
only send responses from the transmit list, but also send requests
based on the MSHRs.
A follow on patch further simplifies the SimpleTimingPort and the
cache ports.
This patch fixes the cache stats to use the new request ids.
Cache stats also display the requestor names in the vector subnames.
Most cache stats now include "nozero" and "nonan" flags to reduce the
amount of excessive cache stat dump. Also, simplified
incMissCount()/incHitCount() functions.
This patch adds the necessary flags to the SConstruct and SConscript
files for compiling using clang 2.9 and later (on Ubuntu et al and OSX
XCode 4.2), and also cleans up a bunch of compiler warnings found by
clang. Most of the warnings are related to hidden virtual functions,
comparisons with unsigneds >= 0, and if-statements with empty
bodies. A number of mismatches between struct and class are also
fixed. clang 2.8 is not working as it has problems with class names
that occur in multiple namespaces (e.g. Statistics in
kernel_stats.hh).
clang has a bug (http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=7247) which
causes confusion between the container std::set and the function
Packet::set, and this is currently addressed by not including the
entire namespace std, but rather selecting e.g. "using std::vector" in
the appropriate places.
This patch is a very straight-forward simplification, removing the
unecessary otherPort pointer from the cache port. The pointer was only
used to forward range changes, and the address range is fixed for the
cache. Removing the pointer simplifies the transition to master/slave
ports.
This patch simplifies the address-range determination mechanism and
also unifies the naming across ports and devices. It further splits
the queries for determining if a port is snooping and what address
ranges it responds to (aiming towards a separation of
cache-maintenance ports and pure memory-mapped ports). Default
behaviours are such that most ports do not have to define isSnooping,
and master ports need not implement getAddrRanges.
At the same time, rename the trace flags to debug flags since they
have broader usage than simply tracing. This means that
--trace-flags is now --debug-flags and --trace-help is now --debug-help
