Unfavorable Strides in Cache Memory Systems (RNR Technical Report RNR-92-015)

Article type: Research Article

Authors: BAILEY, DAVID H.

Affiliations: Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Systems Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035

Abstract: An important issue in obtaining high performance on a scientific application running on a cache-based computer system is the behavior of the cache when data are accessed at a constant stride. Others who have discussed this issue have noted an odd phenomenon in such situations: A few particular innocent-looking strides result in sharply reduced cache efficiency. In this article, this problem is analyzed, and a simple formula is presented that accurately gives the cache efficiency for various cache parameters and data strides.

Journal: Scientific Programming, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 53-58, 1995