In this paper, we use execution-driven simulation to study and compare vector processing performances, in terms of the total execution time of an application program, of cache-based vector computers with that of uncached vector computers having a large number of interleaved memory banks. The cache memory used here is a new cache organization called prime-mapped cache. Simulation results on SPEC92 benchmarks show that the cache-based vector computers perform significantly better than the vector computers with no cache. The performance improvement is getting larger as the speed gap between processors and memories grows. Meanwhile, the cache-based vector computers are also cost-effective because of the reduction of large number of interleaved memory banks otherwise needed by vector computers with no cache.
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