Implementing Inclusion Property with SimpleScalar

1. Inclusion Property
2. Code Change
3. Experiments
4. Conclusion

1. Inclusion Property

If the two-level cache system satisfies the inclusion property, it means everything in the primary cache is also in the secondary cache and all snooping can be done by the secondary cache. To implement the inclusion property, two requirements must be met:

• Whenever a new block of data are loaded into(or removed from) L1 cache, they also should be loaded into(or removed from) the L2 cache.
• Whenever a block of data are loaded into(or removed from) L2 cache, they also should be loaded into(or removed from) the L1 cache.

SimpleScalar already implemented the first requirement. When there is a cache miss in L1 cache, L2 cache will be accessed for the block. If the block are also cannot be found in the L2 cache, they will be loaded from the memory. The data consistency is kept in this way.

However, the second requirement is not supported by the official SimpleScalar. To implement this feature, the data block must be checked every time L2 cache encounter a cache miss. Since all cache read/write operations are done in function cache_access(), the action of checking and removing data blocks from L1 cache should also be added into that function with the condition of accessing L2 cache.

- See more at: http://bo-yang.github.io/2014/04/18/inclusion-property/#sthash.JqCafwAG.dpuf

http://bo-yang.github.io/2014/04/18/inclusion-property