An Integrated Framework for Compiler-Directed Cache Coherence and Data Prefetching

Abstract

Cache coherence enforcement and memory latency reduction and hiding are very important and challenging problems in the design of large-scale distributed shared-memory (DSM) multiprocessors. We propose an integrated approach to solve these problems through a compiler-directed cache coherence scheme called the Cache Coherence with Data Prefetching (CCDP) scheme. The CCDP scheme enforces cache coherence by prefetching the potentially-stale references in a parallel program. It also prefetches the non-stale references to hide their memory latencies. To optimize the performance of the CCDP scheme, some prefetch hardware support is provided to efficiently handle these two forms of data prefetching operations. We also developed the compiler techniques utilized by the CCDP scheme for stale reference detection, prefetch target analysis and prefetch scheduling. We evaluated the performance of the CCDP scheme via execution-driven simulations of several applications from the SPEC CFP95 and CFP92 benchmark suites. The simulation results show that the CCDP scheme provides significant performance improvements for the benchmark programs studied.KeywordsCompiler-directed Cache CoherenceData PrefetchingMemory Latency HidingShared-memory Multiprocessors