Cluster miss prediction with prefetch on miss for embedded CPU instruction caches
Ken W. Batcher, Robert A. Walker · 2004
Soft CPU cores are often used in embedded systems, yet they limit opportunities to improve cache performance to hardware assistance outside the CPU core. Instruction prefetching is commonly used, but the popular Prefetch On Miss (POM) technique is less helpful when the instruction flow does not follow a sequential execution order, which is often the case in real-time networking applications. Cluster Miss Prediction (CMP) can help in those worst case situations when cache misses do not follow a sequential order, and can be combined with POM to provide an effective technique for real-time networking applications on embedded systems. The benefits of the CMP+POM technique are illustrated in the context of an industrial embedded networking application using different cache configurations.