AVOIDING CONFLICT MISSES DYNAMICALLY IN LARGE DIRECT-MAPPED CACHES

This paper describes a method for improving the performance of a large direct-mapped cache by reducing the number of conflict misses. Our so lution consists of two components: an inexpensive hardware device call ed a Cache Miss Lookaside (CML) buffer that detects conflicts by recor ding and summarizing a history of cache misses, and a software policy within the operating system's virtual memory system that removes confl icts by dynamically remapping pages whenever large numbers of conflict misses are detected. Using trace-driven simulation of applications an d the operating system, we how that a CML buffer enables a large direc t-mapped cache to perform nearly as well as a two-way set associative cache of equivalent size and speed, although with lower hardware cost and complexity.