Implementation and evaluation of update-based cache protocols under relaxed memory consistency models

Håkan Grahn, Per Stenström, Michel Dubois
1995 Future generations computer systems  
Invalidation-based cache coherence protocols have been extensively studied in the context of large-scale shared-memory multiprocessors. Under a relaxed memory consistency model, most of the write latency can be hidden whereas cache misses still incur a severe performance problem. By contrast, update-based protocols have a potential to reduce both write and read penalties under relaxed memory consistency models because coherence misses can be completely eliminated. The purpose of this paper is
more » ... compare update-and invalidation-based protocols for their ability to reduce or hide memory access latencies and for their ease of implementation under relaxed memory consistency models. Based on a detailed simulation study, we find that write-update protocols augmented with simple competitive mechanisms -we call such protocols competitive-update protocols -can hide all the write latency and cut the read penalty by as much as 46% at the cost of some increase in the memory traffic. However, as compared to write-invalidate, update-based protocols require more aggressive memory consistency models and more local buffering in the second-level cache to be effective. In addition, their increased number of global writes may cause increased synchronization overhead in applications with high contention for critical sections.
doi:10.1016/0167-739x(94)00067-o fatcat:w4hucg77hzhgrfson4sjih2rme