A Comparative Evaluation of Cache Coherence Schemes Based on Virtual Memory Support
Report ID: TR-373-92Author: Li, Kai / Petersen, Karin
Date: 1992-05-00
Pages: 13
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Abstract:
This paper presents an evaluation of a new class of software cache coherence schemes that use virtual memory (VM) support to maintain multiprocessor cache coherence. Traditional VM translation hardware in each processor detects memory access attempts that would violate cache coherence and system software is used to enforce coherence. The implementation of this class of coherence schemes is extremely economical: it requires neither special multiprocessor hardware nor compiler support, and easily incorporates different consistency models. We have evaluated four consistency models for the VM-based approach: sequential consistency, single-writer release consistency, release consistency, and lazy release consistency. Our trace-driven simulation results show that the VM-based cache coherence schemes are practical for small-scale multiprocessors and that the performance of lazy release consistency for multi-threaded parallel programs is close to the snoopy-cache invalidation-based coherence approach.