Cache Hierarchy in A Modern Processor
Modern processors have multiple interacting caches on chip.
The operation of a particular cache can be completely specified by:
- the cache size
- the cache block size
- the number of blocks in a set
- the cache set replacement policy
- the cache write policy (write-through or write-back)
While all of the cache blocks in a particular cache are the same size and have the same associativity, typically "lower-level" caches (such as the L1 cache) have a smaller size, have smaller blocks, and have fewer blocks in a set, while "higher-level" caches (such as the L3 cache) have larger size, larger blocks, and more blocks in a set.
Read more about this topic: CPU Cache
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