A cache acts as a filter. For example, for every 1000 instructions
of a program, an average of 20 memory accesses may exhibit low enough
locality that they cannot be serviced by a 2 MB cache. The 2 MB cache is said
to have an MPKI (misses per thousand instructions) of 20, and this will be largely
true regardless of the smaller caches that precede the 2 MB cache. Assume the following
cache/latency/MPKI values: 32 KB/1/100, 128 KB/2/80, 512 KB/4/50,
2 MB/8/40, 8 MB/16/10. Assume that accessing the off-chip memory system
requires 200 cycles on average. For the following cache configurations, calculate
the average time spent accessing the cache hierarchy. What do you observe about
the downsides of a cache hierarchy that is too shallow or too deep?
a. 32 KB L1; 8 MB L2; off-chip memory
b. 32 KB L1; 512 KB L2; 8 MB L3; off-chip memory
c. 32 KB L1; 128 KB L2; 2 MB L3; 8 MB L4; off-chip memory