History log of /gem5/src/mem/cache/Cache.py
Revision Date Author Comments
# 13945:a573bed35a8b 19-Jun-2018 Daniel R. Carvalho <odanrc@yahoo.com.br>

mem-cache: Add compression and decompression calls

Add a compressor to the base cache class and compress within
block allocation and decompress on writebacks.

This change does not implement data expansion (fat writes) yet,
nor it adds the compression latency to the block write time.

Change-Id: Ie36db65f7487c9b05ec4aedebc2c7651b4cb4821
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/public/gem5/+/11410
Tested-by: kokoro <noreply+kokoro@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>


# 13892:0182a0601f66 22-Apr-2019 Gabe Black <gabeblack@google.com>

mem: Minimize the use of MemObject.

MemObject doesn't provide anything beyond its base ClockedObject any
more, so this change removes it from most inheritance hierarchies.
Occasionally MemObject is replaced with SimObject when I was fairly
confident that the extra functionality of ClockedObject wasn't needed.

Change-Id: Ic014ab61e56402e62548e8c831eb16e26523fdce
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/public/gem5/+/18289
Tested-by: kokoro <noreply+kokoro@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Anthony Gutierrez <anthony.gutierrez@amd.com>
Maintainer: Gabe Black <gabeblack@google.com>


# 13665:9c7fe3811b88 25-Jan-2019 Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>

python: Don't assume SimObjects live in the global namespace

The importer in Python 3 doesn't like the way we import SimObjects
from the global namespace. Convert the existing SimObject declarations
to import from m5.objects. As a side-effect, this makes these files
consistent with configuration files.

Change-Id: I11153502b430822130722839e1fa767b82a027aa
Signed-off-by: Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/15981
Reviewed-by: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>
Reviewed-by: Giacomo Travaglini <giacomo.travaglini@arm.com>


# 13352:75647326f19b 10-Oct-2016 Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>

mem: Add write coalescing and write-no-allocate to the caches

Enable the cache to detect contiguous writes and hold on to the MSHR
long enough to allow the entire line to be written. If the whole line
is written, the MSHR will be sent out as an invalidation requests, as
it is part of a whole-line write, i.e. no-fetch-on-write.

The cache is also able to switch to a write-no-allocate policy on the
actual completion of the writes, and instead use the tempBlock and
turn the write operation into a writeback.

These policies are all well-known, and described in works such as
Jouppi, Cache Write Policies and Performance, vol 21, no 2, ACM, 1993.

Change-Id: I19792f2970b3c6798c9b2b493acdd156897284ae
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/12907
Reviewed-by: Daniel Carvalho <odanrc@yahoo.com.br>
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>


# 12726:850e9965525b 05-Feb-2018 Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>

mem-cache: Add a non-coherent cache

The class re-uses the existing MSHR and write queue. At the moment
every single access is handled by the cache, even uncacheable
accesses, and nothing is forwarded.

This is a modified version of a changeset put together by Andreas
Hansson <andreas.hansson@arm.com>

Change-Id: I41f7f9c2b8c7fa5ec23712a4446e8adb1c9a336a
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/8291
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Daniel Carvalho <odanrc@yahoo.com.br>


# 12724:4f6fac3191d2 02-Feb-2018 Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>

mem-cache: Adopt a more sensible cache class hierarchy

This patch changes what goes into the BaseCache and what goes into the
Cache, to make it easier to add a NoncoherentCache with as much re-use
as possible. A number of redundant members and definitions are also
removed in the process.

This is a modified version of a changeset put together by Andreas
Hansson <andreas.hansson@arm.com>

Change-Id: Ie9dd73c4ec07732e778e7416b712dad8b4bd5d4b
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/10431
Reviewed-by: Daniel Carvalho <odanrc@yahoo.com.br>
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>


# 12600:e670dd17c8cf 19-Feb-2018 Daniel R. Carvalho <odanrc@yahoo.com.br>

mem-cache: Split array indexing and replacement policies.

Replacement policies (LRU, Random) are currently considered as array
indexing methods, but have completely different functionalities:

- Array indexers determine the possible locations for block allocation.
This information is used to generate replacement candidates when
conflicts happen.
- Replacement policies determine which of the replacement candidates
should be evicted to make room for new allocations.

For this reason, they were split into different classes. Advantages:

- Easier and more straightforward to implement other replacement
policies (RRIP, LFU, ARC, ...)
- Allow easier future implementation of cache organization schemes

As now we can't assure the use of sets, the previous way to create a
true LRU is not viable. Now a timestamp_bits parameter controls how
many bits are dedicated for the timestamp, and a true LRU can be
achieved through an infinite number of bits (although a few bits suffice
in practice).

Change-Id: I23750db121f1474d17831137e6ff618beb2b3eda
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/8501
Reviewed-by: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>


# 12513:4dfc54394b5a 07-Feb-2018 Daniel R. Carvalho <odanrc@yahoo.com.br>

mem-cache: Make cache warmup percentage a parameter.

The warmupPercentage is the percentage of different tags (based on the
cache size) that need to be touched in order to warm up the cache.
If Warmup failed (i.e., not enough tags were touched), warmup_cycle = 0.

The warmup is not being taken into account to calculate the stats (i.e.,
stats acquisition starts before cache is warmed up). Maybe in the future
this functionality should be added.

Change-Id: I2b93a99c19fddb99a4c60e6d4293fa355744d05e
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/8061
Reviewed-by: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>


# 11722:f15f02d8c79e 30-Nov-2016 Sophiane Senni <sophiane.senni@gmail.com>

mem: Split the hit_latency into tag_latency and data_latency

If the cache access mode is parallel, i.e. "sequential_access" parameter
is set to "False", tags and data are accessed in parallel. Therefore,
the hit_latency is the maximum latency between tag_latency and
data_latency. On the other hand, if the cache access mode is
sequential, i.e. "sequential_access" parameter is set to "True",
tags and data are accessed sequentially. Therefore, the hit_latency
is the sum of tag_latency plus data_latency.

Signed-off-by: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>


# 11331:cd5c48db28e6 10-Feb-2016 Andreas Hansson <andreas.hansson@arm.com>

mem: Deduce if cache should forward snoops

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


# 11199:929fd978ab4e 06-Nov-2015 Andreas Hansson <andreas.hansson@arm.com>

mem: Add an option to perform clean writebacks from caches

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


# 11197:f8fdd931e674 06-Nov-2015 Andreas Hansson <andreas.hansson@arm.com>

mem: Add cache clusivity

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).


# 11053:62544e45c0f4 21-Aug-2015 Andreas Hansson <andreas.hansson@arm.com>

mem: Add explicit Cache subclass and make BaseCache abstract

Open up for other subclasses to BaseCache and transition to using the
explicit Cache subclass.