MAPPING TECHNIQUES IN CACHE MEMORY

Usually cache memory can store a reasonable number of memory blocks at any given time,
but this number is small when compared to the total number of blocks in the main memory.
The similarity between the main memory blocks and those in the cache is specified by a
mapping function.
A block of words have to be brought in and out of the cache memory continuously
The mapping techniques are classified as
Direct mapping technique
Associative mapping technique
Fully associative
Consider a cache of 128 blocks of 16 words each.
Consider a memory of 64K words divided into 4096 blocks.
Direct mapping technique

Simplest way of mapping.

Main memory is divided in blocks.
Block j of the main memory is mapped onto block j modulo 128 of the cache.
The main memory blocks 0, 128, 256, 3968 is mapped to cache block 0, and the

blocks 1, 129, 257, are mapped to cache block 1 and so on.

The general mapping expression is
j= i modulo m
where,
i=Main memory block number
j=Cache block number
m=Number of blocks in the cache

Word Field

The lower order 4 bits select one of the 16 words in a block.

Block Field

The block field is used to distinguish a block from other blocks. Its length is 7 bits since

27 = 128.
When a new block enters the cache, the 7 bit cache block field determines the cache
position in which this block must be stored.

Tag Field
It is used to store the high order 5 bits of memory address of the block. These 5-bit (tag bits)
are used to identify which of the 32 blocks that are mapped into the cache.
When memory is accessed, the 7 bit cache block field of each address generated by CPU
points to a particular block location in the cache.
The Higher-order 5 bits of the address are compared with the tag bits associated with that
cache location. If they match, then the desired word is in that block of the cache.
If there is no match, then the block containing the required word must first be read from the
main memory and loaded into the cache.

Advantage
Simplest replacement algorithm
Disadvantage
Not flexible
There is contention problem even when cache is not full
For example, block 0 and block 128 both take only block 0 of cache:
0 modulo 128 = 0
128 modulo 128 = 0
If both blocks 0 and 128 of the main memory are used a lot, it will be very slow
Associative-Mapping technique
Any block can go anywhere in cache.
4095 blocks -> 4095 tag = 212 bit tag

The 12 bits tag are required to identify a memory block when it is resident in the cache.
The high-order 12 bits of an address received from the CPU are compared to the tag bits
of each block of the cache to see if the desired block is present.

Advantage

Any empty block in cache can be used

Flexible

Disadvantage

Must check all tags to check for a hit,

Expensive

Set Associative Mapping Technique

Comprise between direct mapping and associative mapping.

Block in main memory maps to a set of blocks in cache direct mapping
Can map to any block within the set.
E.g. use 6 bits for tag = 26 = 64 tags
6 bits for set = 26 = 64 sets

The blocks in cache are divided into 64 sets and there are two blocks in each set.
Main memory blocks 0, 64, 128, 4032 maps to set 0 and can occupy either of the two
positions