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 fixes an issue where an InvalidationReq only traversed one
level of the cache hierarchy, and was subsequently turned into a
ReadExReq due to it needing writable, and the command not being
checked for explicitly.
This patch introduces the ability of making the coherent crossbar the
point of coherency. If so, the crossbar does not forward packets where
a cache with ownership has already committed to responding, and also
does not forward any coherency-related packets that are not intended
for a downstream memory controller. Thus, invalidations and upgrades
are turned around in the crossbar, and the memory controller only sees
normal reads and writes.
In addition this patch moves the express snoop promotion of a packet
to the crossbar, thus allowing the downstream cache to check the
express snoop flag (as it should) for bypassing any blocking, rather
than relying on whether a cache is responding or not.
Adopt the same flow as in timing mode, where the caches on the path to
memory get to keep the line (if present), and we use the
responderHadWritable flag to determine if we need to forward the
(invalidating) packet or not.
This patch unifies the snoop handling in case of hitting writebacks
with how we handle snoops hitting in the tags. As a result, we end up
using the same optimisation as the normal snoops, where we inform the
downstream cache if we encounter a line in Modified (writable and
dirty) state, which enables us to avoid sending out express snoops to
invalidate any Shared copies of the line. A few regressions
consequently change, as some transactions are sunk higher up in the
cache hierarchy.
Some of the DPRINTFs added to the classic cache in cset 45df88079f04,
while useful to those unfamiliar with the cache code, end up being
noise when you're familiar with the code but are trying to debug tricky
protocol issues. (Particularly getting two messages from each cache
as it receives a snoop request then declares that there was no match.)
This patch introduces a CacheVerbose debug flag, and moves a subset of
the added DPRINTFs into that category, so that Cache by itself returns
to being a more succinct summary of cache activity.
Also added a CacheAll compound flag to turn on all the cache-related
debug flags (other than CacheTags, which you *really* have to want badly
to turn it on, IMO).
This patch looks at the request and response command to determine if
either actually has any data payload, and if not, we do not allocate
any space for packet data.
The only tricky case is where the command type is changed as part of
the MSHR functionality. In these cases where the original packet had
no data, but the new packet does, we need to explicitly call
allocate().
This patch ensures we do not respond with a Modified (dirty and
writable) line if the request is uncacheable, and that the cache
responding retains the line without modifying the state (even if
responding).
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 changes how the cache tracks which snoops are forwarded,
and which ones are created locally. Previously the identification was
based on an empty sender state of a specific class, but this method
fails to distinguish which cache actually attached the sender
state. Instead we use the same mechanism as the crossbar, and keep
track of the requests that have outstanding snoops.
This patch addresses a bug in how the cache attached the MSHR as a
sender state. Rather than overwriting any existing sender state it now
pushes a new one. The handling of upward snoops is also clarified.
This patch fixes a corner case in the deferred snoop handling, where
requests ended up being used by multiple packets with different
lifetimes, and inadvertently got deleted while they were still in use.
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 enforces insertion order transmission of packets on the
response path in the cache. Note that the logic to enforce order is
already present in the packet queue, this patch simply turns it on for
queues in the response path.
Without this patch, there are corner cases where a request-response is
faster than a response-response forwarded through the cache. This
violation of queuing order causes problems in the snoop filter leaving
it with inaccurate information. This causes assert failures in the
snoop filter later on.
A follow on patch relaxes the order enforcement in the packet queue to
limit the performance impact.
This patch unifies how we deal with delayed packet deletion, where the
receiving slave is responsible for deleting the packet, but the
sending agent (e.g. a cache) is still relying on the pointer until the
call to sendTimingReq completes. Previously we used a mix of a
deletion vector and a construct using unique_ptr. With this patch we
ensure all slaves use the latter approach.
This patch addresses the upgrading of deferred targets in the MSHR,
and makes it clearer by explicitly calling out what is happening
(deferred targets are promoted if we get exclusivity without asking
for it).
This patch fixes issues in the interactions between deferred snoops
and WriteLineReq. More specifically, the patch addresses an issue
where deferred snoops caused assertion failures when being serviced on
the arrival of an InvalidateResp. The response packet was perceived to
be invalidating, when actually it is not for the cache that sent out
the original invalidation request.
This patch mirrors the logic in timing mode which sends up snoops to
check for cached copies before sending CleanEvicts and Writebacks down
the memory hierarchy. In case there is a copy in a cache above,
discard CleanEvicts and set the BLOCK_CACHED flag in Writebacks so
that writebacks do not reset the cache residency bit in the snoop
filter below.
This patch introduces the concept of a snoop latency. Given the
requirement to snoop and forward packets in zero time (due to the
coherency mechanism), the latency is accounted for later.
On a snoop, we establish the latency, and later add it to the header
delay of the packet. To allow multiple caches to contribute to the
snoop latency, we use a separate variable in the packet, and then take
the maximum before adding it to the header delay.
Cleaning up dead code. The CLREX stores zero directly to
MISCREG_LOCKFLAG and so the request flag is no longer needed. The
corresponding functionality in the cache tags is also removed.
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 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 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()
The IIC replacement policy seems to be unused and has probably
gathered too much bit rot to be useful. This patch removes the IIC and
its associated cache parameters.
timing mode still broken.
configs/example/memtest.py:
Revamp options.
src/cpu/memtest/memtest.cc:
No need for memory initialization.
No need to make atomic response... memory system should do that now.
src/cpu/memtest/memtest.hh:
MemTest really doesn't want to snoop.
src/mem/bridge.cc:
checkFunctional() cleanup.
src/mem/bus.cc:
src/mem/bus.hh:
src/mem/cache/base_cache.cc:
src/mem/cache/base_cache.hh:
src/mem/cache/cache.cc:
src/mem/cache/cache.hh:
src/mem/cache/cache_blk.hh:
src/mem/cache/cache_builder.cc:
src/mem/cache/cache_impl.hh:
src/mem/cache/coherence/coherence_protocol.cc:
src/mem/cache/coherence/coherence_protocol.hh:
src/mem/cache/coherence/simple_coherence.hh:
src/mem/cache/miss/SConscript:
src/mem/cache/miss/mshr.cc:
src/mem/cache/miss/mshr.hh:
src/mem/cache/miss/mshr_queue.cc:
src/mem/cache/miss/mshr_queue.hh:
src/mem/cache/prefetch/base_prefetcher.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/fa_lru.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/fa_lru.hh:
src/mem/cache/tags/iic.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/iic.hh:
src/mem/cache/tags/lru.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/lru.hh:
src/mem/cache/tags/split.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/split.hh:
src/mem/cache/tags/split_lifo.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/split_lifo.hh:
src/mem/cache/tags/split_lru.cc:
src/mem/cache/tags/split_lru.hh:
src/mem/packet.cc:
src/mem/packet.hh:
src/mem/physical.cc:
src/mem/physical.hh:
src/mem/tport.cc:
More major reorg. Seems to work for atomic mode now,
timing mode still broken.
--HG--
extra : convert_revision : 7e70dfc4a752393b911880ff028271433855ae87
Compiles but doesn't work... committing just so I can merge
(stupid bk!).
src/mem/bridge.cc:
Get rid of SNOOP_COMMIT.
src/mem/bus.cc:
src/mem/packet.hh:
Get rid of SNOOP_COMMIT & two-pass snoop.
First bits of EXPRESS_SNOOP support.
src/mem/cache/base_cache.cc:
src/mem/cache/base_cache.hh:
src/mem/cache/cache.hh:
src/mem/cache/cache_impl.hh:
src/mem/cache/miss/blocking_buffer.cc:
src/mem/cache/miss/miss_queue.cc:
src/mem/cache/prefetch/base_prefetcher.cc:
Big reorg of ports and port-related functions & events.
src/mem/cache/cache.cc:
src/mem/cache/cache_builder.cc:
src/mem/cache/coherence/SConscript:
Get rid of UniCoherence object.
--HG--
extra : convert_revision : 7672434fa3115c9b1c94686f497e57e90413b7c3
