baum@Apple.COM (Allen J. Baum) (02/23/89)
[] >In article <7051@polya.Stanford.EDU> wilson@carcoar.Stanford.EDU (Paul Wilson) writes: >Even if the Newest generation won't fit in the cache, you should be >able to avoid swapping a lot of cache blocks out by telling the cache >hardware if they only contain garbage. (i.e., force them to appear >clean, so they won't be written back, or tell the cache to "create" >a block without actually reading in the corresponding block from >main memory). It seems that this would cut cache-memory traffic by >approximately half (?) for the Newest generation. > Both IBM and HP have patents on that sort of thing: 4,719,568 Hierarchical memory system including separate cache memories for storing data and instructions (IBM) 4,713,755 Cache memory consistency control with explicit software instructions (HP) -- baum@apple.com (408)974-3385 {decwrl,hplabs}!amdahl!apple!baum