Lightweight set buffer: low power data cache for multimedia application

Abstract

A new architectural technique to reduce power dissipation in data caches is proposed. In multimedia applications, a major portion of data cache accesses hit in the same cache set continuously before going to a different set. This feature allows us to remove unnecessary driving power in data arrays as long as the same cache set is accessed incessantly. Power saving is achieved through buffering and accessing the cache set instead of the main data array. The proposed technique does not incur performance degradation and accomplishes up to 57% of power reduction for data caches.