TWO LEVEL REPLACEMENT SCHEME OPTIMIZES FOR PERFORMANCE, POWER, AND AREA

摘要

A two-level replacement scheme is provided for selecting an entry in a cache memory to replace when a cache miss takes place and the memory is full. The scheme divides the tags associated with each memory location of the cache into two or more groups, each group relating to a subset of memory locations of the cache. The scheme uses a first algorithm to select one of the groups and passes the tags for the group through a second algorithm. The second algorithm produces a local index which, when combined with a group index, produces a replacement index that identifies a memory location in the cache to replace.