Further cache and TLB investigation of the RAMpage memory hierarchy

Abstract

The RAMpage memory hierarchy is an alternative to the traditional division between cache and main memory: main memory is moved up a level and DRAM is used as a paging device. Earlier RAMpage work has shown that the RAMpage model scales up better with the growing CPU-DRAM speed gap, especially when context switches are taken on misses. This paper investigates the effect of more aggressive first-level (L l) cache and translation lookaside buffer (TLB) implementations, with other parameters kept the same as in previous work, to illustrate that a more aggressive design improves the competitiveness of RAMpage. The more aggressive LI shows an increase in the advantage of RAMpage with context switches on misses, supporting the hypothesis that a more aggressive LI favours RAMpage. However, results without context switches on misses are less conclusive. A larger TLB, as predicted, makes RAMpage viable over a wider range of page sizes.