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1Conceptual Review

  1. Question

Solution

Solution

2Short Exercises

  1. True/False: For the same cache size and block size, a 4-way set associative cache will have fewer index bits than a direct-mapped cache.

Solution

True. A direct-mapped cache needs to index every block of the cache, whereas a 4-way set associative cache needs to index every set of 4 blocks. The 4-way set associative cache will have 2 fewer index bits than the direct-mapped cache.

  1. True/False: Caches see an immediate improvement in memory access time at program execution

Solution

False. A cache starts off ‘cold’ and requires loading in values in blocks at first directly from memory, forcing compulsory misses. This can be somewhat alleviated by the use of a hardware prefetcher, which uses the current pattern of misses to predict and prefetch data that may be accessed later on

L29 Caches IV
Precheck Summary
Miscellaneous
Motivation: Fixed Point