The Effects of Granularity and Adaptivity on Private/Shared Classification for Coherence

Abstract

Classification of data into private and shared has proven to be a catalyst for techniques to reduce coherence cost, since private data can be taken out of coherence and resources can be concentrated on providing coherence for shared data. In this article, we examine how granularity—page-level versus cache-line level—and adaptivity—going from shared to private—affect the outcome of classification and its final impact on coherence. We create a classification technique, called Generational Classification , and a coherence protocol called Generational Coherence, which treats data as private or shared based on cache-line generations. We compare two coherence protocols based on self-invalidation/self-downgrade with respect to data classification. Our findings are enlightening: (i) Some programs benefit from finer granularity, some benefit further from adaptivity, but some do not benefit from either. (ii) Reducing the amount of shared data has no perceptible impact on coherence misses caused by self-invalidation of shared data, hence no impact on performance. (iii) In contrast, classifying more data as private has implications for protocols that employ write-through as a means of self-downgrade, resulting in network traffic reduction—up to 30%—by reducing write-through traffic.