README
1-----------------------------------------------------------
2 ____ _ ____ _____ ___ __ ____
3 / ___| / \ / ___|_ _|_ _| / /_ | ___|
4 | | / _ \| | | | | | | '_ \ |___ \
5 | |___ / ___ \ |___ | | | | | (_) | ___) |
6 \____/_/ \_\____| |_| |___| \___(_)____/
7
8
9 A Tool to Model Caches/Memories
10-----------------------------------------------------------
11
12CACTI is an analytical tool that takes a set of cache/memory para-
13meters as input and calculates its access time, power, cycle
14time, and area.
15CACTI was originally developed by Dr. Jouppi and Dr. Wilton
16in 1993 and since then it has undergone five major
17revisions.
18
19List of features (version 1-6.5):
20===============================
21The following is the list of features supported by the tool.
22
23* Power, delay, area, and cycle time model for
24 direct mapped caches
25 set-associative caches
26 fully associative caches
27 Embedded DRAM memories
28 Commodity DRAM memories
29
30* Support for modeling multi-ported uniform cache access (UCA)
31 and multi-banked, multi-ported non-uniform cache access (NUCA).
32
33* Leakage power calculation that also considers the operating
34 temperature of the cache.
35
36* Router power model.
37
38* Interconnect model with different delay, power, and area
39 properties including low-swing wire model.
40
41* An interface to perform trade-off analysis involving power, delay,
42 area, and bandwidth.
43
44* All process specific values used by the tool are obtained
45 from ITRS and currently, the tool supports 90nm, 65nm, 45nm,
46 and 32nm technology nodes.
47
48Version 6.5 has a new c++ code base and includes numerous bug fixes.
49CACTI 5.3 and 6.0 activate an entire row of mats to read/write a single
50block of data. This technique improves reliability at the cost of
51power. CACTI 6.5 activates minimum number of mats just enough to retrieve
52a block to minimize power.
53
54How to use the tool?
55====================
56Prior versions of CACTI take input parameters such as cache
57size and technology node as a set of command line arguments.
58To avoid a long list of command line arguments,
59CACTI 6.5 lets users specify their cache model in a more
60detailed manner by using a config file (cache.cfg).
61
62-> define the cache model using cache.cfg
63-> run the "cacti" binary <./cacti -infile cache.cfg>
64
65CACTI6.5 also provides a command line interface similar to earlier versions
66of CACTI. The command line interface can be used as
67
68./cacti cache_size line_size associativity rw_ports excl_read_ports excl_write_ports
69 single_ended_read_ports search_ports banks tech_node output_width specific_tag tag_width
70 access_mode cache main_mem obj_func_delay obj_func_dynamic_power obj_func_leakage_power
71 obj_func_cycle_time obj_func_area dev_func_delay dev_func_dynamic_power dev_func_leakage_power
72 dev_func_area dev_func_cycle_time ed_ed2_none temp wt data_arr_ram_cell_tech_flavor_in
73 data_arr_peri_global_tech_flavor_in tag_arr_ram_cell_tech_flavor_in tag_arr_peri_global_tech_flavor_in
74 interconnect_projection_type_in wire_inside_mat_type_in wire_outside_mat_type_in
75 REPEATERS_IN_HTREE_SEGMENTS_in VERTICAL_HTREE_WIRES_OVER_THE_ARRAY_in
76 BROADCAST_ADDR_DATAIN_OVER_VERTICAL_HTREES_in PAGE_SIZE_BITS_in BURST_LENGTH_in
77 INTERNAL_PREFETCH_WIDTH_in force_wiretype wiretype force_config ndwl ndbl nspd ndcm
78 ndsam1 ndsam2 ecc
79
80For complete documentation of the tool, please refer CACTI-5.3 and 6.0
81technical reports and the following paper,
82"Optimizing NUCA Organizations and Wiring Alternatives for
83Large Caches With CACTI 6.0", that appears in MICRO 2007.
84
85We are still improving the tool and refining the code. If you
86have any comments, questions, or suggestions please write to
87us.
88
89Naveen Muralimanohar Jung Ho Ahn Sheng Li
90naveen.muralimanohar@hp.com gajh@snu.ac.kr sheng.li@hp.com
91
92
93
94
95