Performance evaluations for multicore processors

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: To use and improve a new simulation tool that emulates and studies different cache hierarchies and configurations to evaluate the performance of any chosen processor and cache configurations.

Findings and Conclusions: Sharing a L2 cache with more than eight processors may reduce performance. Using a shared L3 cache or hierarchical architecture may result in a better performance. The major factor that contributes to the loss of performance is the bus contention. Increasing the size of shared cache does not have a significant impact on performance.