Cache Behavior Analysis of a Compiler-Assisted Cache Replacement Policy

Recent research results show that conventional hardware-only cache replacement policies result in unsatisfactory cache utilization because of cache pollution. To overcome this problem, cache hints are introduced to assist cache replacement. Cache hints are used to specify the cache level at which the data is stored after accessing it. This paper present a compiler-assisted cache replacement policy, Optimum Cache Partition (OCP), which can be carried out through cache hints and LRU replacement policy. Presburger arithmetic is used to exactly model the behavior of loop nests under OCP policy. The OCP replacement policy results in plain cache behaviors, and makes cache misses analyzing and optimizing easily and efficiently. OCP replacement policy has been implemented in our compiler test-bed and evaluated on a set of scientific computing benchmarks. Initial results show that our approach is effective on reducing the cache miss rate.