Operating System-Aware Cache Optimization Techniques for Multi Core Processors

Operating system plays a major role in effective memory management and has a significant impact on the performance of applications. In a Chip Multiprocessor, the on-chip memory hierarchy is an important resource that plays a significant role in determining the overall performance of an application. In addition to a number of hardware optimization techniques that work for all types of applications, some software controlled optimization techniques are also effective for improving the performance of on-chip memory hierarchy. This is so because the software controlled techniques generally have a global view of other concurrently running workloads. A better solution to the memory performance problem is to couple the operating system policies and mechanisms to the hardware techniques for management of on-chip memory hierarchy and its optimizations. This paper gives an overview of all such designs that have coupled the on-chip cache optimization techniques with the operating system mechanisms and policies. More techniques are suggested that would be investigated to predict their effectiveness.