On 15.01.2008 20:36, Rudolf Marek wrote:
I just can explain in general what addresses are "forbidden".
L1 cache is 64KB 2-way associative with 64B block size.
This means 6 bits for data (to address the 64Bytes) and for the cache index we have 65536 / ( 2 * 64) = 512 rows so we have 9 bits for this, rest is TAG. So the 32 bit memory address would look like this when cut:
31st ..... TAG ..... 14th .... INDEX ..... 5th block addr.
So "forbidden" addresses are all from range which will hit first 256 cache lines, so address from bit 0 to bit INDEX - 1 (13rd bit)
(X means dontcare 4 bits, x is dontcare one bit)
xxxx x000 0000 00xx xxxx to xxxx x011 1111 11xx xxxx
Which for it turns out anything in the address range XXXX0000 - XXXX3FFF will hit first 256 cache lines. Marc suggest that this is SW issue and not a HW issue so perhaps we can ignore this ;) but anyway, it is always good to explain why this addresses - I hope there is no mistake in my calculations.
Great explanation, thanks! Something like this should appear in the BKDG.
Regards, Carl-Daniel