Hardware-Based Performance Enhancement Guaranteed Caches

Abstract

Cache memories are widely used in microprocessors to improve the average-case memory performance. However, they are harmful to time predictability, and thus may not be desirable for real-time systems. In this paper, we make simple hardware extensions of a regular cache to implement the performance enhancement guaranteed cache (PEG-C). The PEG-C is totally controlled by hardware, which can automatically improve the average-case performance of real-time software with guaranteed and enhanced worst-case performance.