Lec 14.2 Review: Memory Hierarchy of a Modern Computer System Take advantage of the principle of locality to: –Present as much memory as in the cheapest technology –Provide access at speed offered by the fastest technology On-Chip Cache Registers Control Datapath Secondary Storage (Disk) Processor Main Memory (DRAM) Second Level Cache (SRAM) 1s 10,000,000s (10s ms) Speed (ns):10s-100s100s GsSize (bytes):Ks-MsMs Tertiary Storage (Tape) 10,000,000,000s (10s sec) Ts
Lec 14.3 Compulsory (cold start): first reference to a block –“Cold” fact of life: not a whole lot you can do about it –Note: When running “billions” of instruction, Compulsory Misses are insignificant Capacity: –Cache cannot contain all blocks access by the program –Solution: increase cache size Conflict (collision): –Multiple memory locations mapped to same cache location –Solutions: increase cache size, or increase associativity Two others: –Coherence (Invalidation): other process (e.g., I/O) updates memory –Policy: Due to non-optimal replacement policy Review: A Summary on Sources of Cache Misses
Lec 14.4 Example: Block 12 placed in 8 block cache 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Block no. Direct mapped: block 12 can go only into block 4 (12 mod 8) Set associative: block 12 can go anywhere in set 0 (12 mod 4) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Block no. Set 0 Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Fully associative: block 12 can go anywhere 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Block no. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 32-Block Address Space: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3Block no. Review: Where does a Block Get Placed in a Cache?
Lec 14.5 What line gets replaced on cache miss? –Easy for Direct Mapped: Only one possibility –Set Associative or Fully Associative: »Random »LRU (Least Recently Used) What happens on a write? –Write through: The information is written to both the cache and to the block in the lower-level memory –Write back: The information is written only to the block in the cache »Modified cache block is written to main memory only when it is replaced »Question is block clean or dirty? Review: Other Caching Questions
Lec 14.6 Caching Applied to Address Translation Question is one of page locality: does it exist? –Instruction accesses spend a lot of time on the same page (since accesses sequential) –Stack accesses have definite locality of reference –Data accesses have less page locality, but still some… Can we have a TLB hierarchy? –Sure: multiple levels at different sizes/speeds Data Read or Write (untranslated) CPU Physical Memory TLB Translate (MMU) No Virtual Address Physical Address Yes Cached? Save Result
Lec 14.8 What Actually Happens on a TLB Miss? Hardware traversed page tables: –On TLB miss, hardware in MMU looks at current page table to fill TLB (may walk multiple levels) »If PTE valid, hardware fills TLB and processor never knows »If PTE marked as invalid, causes Page Fault, after which kernel decides what to do afterwards Software traversed Page tables (like MIPS) –On TLB miss, processor receives TLB fault –Kernel traverses page table to find PTE »If PTE valid, fills TLB and returns from fault »If PTE marked as invalid, internally calls Page Fault handler Most chip sets provide hardware traversal –Modern operating systems tend to have more TLB faults since they use translation for many things –Examples: »shared segments »user-level portions of an operating system
Lec 14.9 What happens on a Context Switch? Need to do something, since TLBs map virtual addresses to physical addresses –Address Space just changed, so TLB entries no longer valid! Options? –Invalidate TLB: simple but might be expensive »What if switching frequently between processes? –Include ProcessID in TLB »This is an architectural solution: needs hardware What if translation tables change? –For example, to move page from memory to disk or vice versa… –Must invalidate TLB entry! »Otherwise, might think that page is still in memory!
Lec 14.10 What TLB organization makes sense? Needs to be really fast –Critical path of memory access »In simplest view: before the cache »Thus, this adds to access time (reducing cache speed) –Seems to argue for Direct Mapped or Low Associativity However, needs to have very few conflicts! –With TLB, the Miss Time extremely high! –This argues that cost of Conflict (Miss Time) is much higher than slightly increased cost of access (Hit Time) Thrashing: continuous conflicts between accesses –What if use low order bits of page as index into TLB? »First page of code, data, stack may map to same entry »Need 3-way associativity at least? –What if use high order bits as index? »TLB mostly unused for small programs CPU TLB CacheMemory
Lec 14.11 TLB organization: include protection How big does TLB actually have to be? –Usually small: 128-512 entries –Not very big, can support higher associativity TLB usually organized as fully-associative cache –Lookup is by Virtual Address –Returns Physical Address + other info What happens when fully-associative is too slow? –Put a small (4-16 entry) direct-mapped cache in front –Called a “TLB Slice” Example for MIPS R3000: 0xFA000x0003YNYR/W34 0x00400x0010NYYR0 0x00410x0011NYYR0 Virtual Address Physical Address Dirty Ref Valid Access ASID
Lec 14.12 Example: R3000 pipeline includes TLB “stages” Inst Fetch Dcd/ Reg ALU / E.AMemoryWrite Reg TLB I-Cache RF Operation WB E.A. TLB D-Cache MIPS R3000 Pipeline ASIDV. Page NumberOffset 12 20 6 0xx User segment (caching based on PT/TLB entry) 100 Kernel physical space, cached 101 Kernel physical space, uncached 11x Kernel virtual space Allows context switching among 64 user processes without TLB flush Virtual Address Space TLB 64 entry, on-chip, fully associative, software TLB fault handler
Lec 14.13 As described, TLB lookup is in serial with cache lookup: Machines with TLBs go one step further: they overlap TLB lookup with cache access. –Works because offset available early Reducing translation time further Virtual Address TLB Lookup V Access Rights PA V page no.offset 10 P page no.offset 10 Physical Address
Lec 14.14 Here is how this might work with a 4K cache: What if cache size is increased to 8KB? –Overlap not complete –Need to do something else. Another option: Virtual Caches –Tags in cache are virtual addresses –Translation only happens on cache misses TLB 4K Cache 102 00 4 bytes index 1 K page #disp 20 assoc lookup 32 Hit/ Miss FN Data Hit/ Miss = FN Overlapping TLB & Cache Access
Lec 14.15 Demand Paging Modern programs require a lot of physical memory –Memory per system growing faster than 25%-30%/year But they don’t use all their memory all of the time –90-10 rule: programs spend 90% of their time in 10% of their code –Wasteful to require all of user’s code to be in memory Solution: use main memory as cache for disk On-Chip Cache Control Datapath Secondary Storage (Disk) Processor Main Memory (DRAM) Second Level Cache (SRAM) Tertiary Storage (Tape) Caching
Lec 14.16 Page Table TLB Illusion of Infinite Memory Disk is larger than physical memory –In-use virtual memory can be bigger than physical memory –Combined memory of running processes much larger than physical memory »More programs fit into memory, allowing more concurrency Principle: Transparent Level of Indirection (page table) –Supports flexible placement of physical data »Data could be on disk or somewhere across network –Variable location of data transparent to user program »Performance issue, not correctness issue Physical Memory 512 MB Disk 500GB Virtual Memory 4 GB
Lec 14.17 Demand Paging is Caching Since Demand Paging is Caching, must ask: –What is block size? »1 page –What is organization of this cache (i.e. direct-mapped, set-associative, fully-associative)? »Fully associative: arbitrary virtual physical mapping –How do we find a page in the cache when look for it? »First check TLB, then page-table traversal –What is page replacement policy? (i.e. LRU, Random…) »This requires more explanation… (kinda LRU) –What happens on a miss? »Go to lower level to fill miss (i.e. disk) –What happens on a write? (write-through, write back) »Definitely write-back. Need dirty bit!
Lec 14.18 Review: What is in a PTE? What is in a Page Table Entry (or PTE)? –Pointer to next-level page table or to actual page –Permission bits: valid, read-only, read-write, write-only Example: Intel x86 architecture PTE: –Address same format previous slide (10, 10, 12-bit offset) –Intermediate page tables called “Directories” P: Present (same as “valid” bit in other architectures) W: Writeable U: User accessible PWT:Page write transparent: external cache write- through PCD:Page cache disabled (page cannot be cached) A: Accessed: page has been accessed recently D: Dirty (PTE only): page has been modified recently L: L=1 4MB page (directory only). Bottom 22 bits of virtual address serve as offset Page Frame Number (Physical Page Number) Free (OS) 0LDA PCD PWT UWP 01234567811-931-12
Lec 14.19 PTE helps us implement demand paging –Valid Page in memory, PTE points at physical page –Not Valid Page not in memory; use info in PTE to find it on disk when necessary Suppose user references page with invalid PTE? –Memory Management Unit (MMU) traps to OS »Resulting trap is a “Page Fault” –What does OS do on a Page Fault?: »Choose an old page to replace »If old page modified (“D=1”), write contents back to disk »Change its PTE and any cached TLB to be invalid »Load new page into memory from disk »Update page table entry, invalidate TLB for new entry »Continue thread from original faulting location –TLB for new page will be loaded when thread continued! –While pulling pages off disk for one process, OS runs another process from ready queue »Suspended process sits on wait queue Demand Paging Mechanisms
Lec 14.20 Software-Loaded TLB MIPS/Snake/Nachos TLB is loaded by software –High TLB hit rate ok to trap to software to fill the TLB, even if slower –Simpler hardware and added flexibility: software can maintain translation tables in whatever convenient format How can a process run without access to page table? –Fast path (TLB hit with valid=1): »Translation to physical page done by hardware –Slow path (TLB hit with valid=0 or TLB miss) »Hardware receives a “TLB Fault” –What does OS do on a TLB Fault? »Traverse page table to find appropriate PTE »If valid=1, load page table entry into TLB, continue thread »If valid=0, perform “Page Fault” detailed previously »Continue thread Everything is transparent to the user process: –It doesn’t know about paging to/from disk –It doesn’t even know about software TLB handling
Lec 14.21 Transparent Exceptions How to transparently restart faulting instructions? –Could we just skip it? »No: need to perform load or store after reconnecting physical page Hardware must help out by saving: –Faulting instruction and partial state »Need to know which instruction caused fault »Is single PC sufficient to identify faulting position???? –Processor State: sufficient to restart user thread »Save/restore registers, stack, etc What if an instruction has side-effects? Load TLB Faulting Inst 1 Faulting Inst 1 Faulting Inst 2 Faulting Inst 2 Fetch page/ Load TLB User OS TLB Faults
Lec 14.22 Consider weird things that can happen What if an instruction has side effects? –Options: »Unwind side-effects (easy to restart) »Finish off side-effects (messy!) –Example 1: mov (sp)+,10 »What if page fault occurs when write to stack pointer? »Did sp get incremented before or after the page fault? –Example 2: strcpy (r1), (r2) »Source and destination overlap: can’t unwind in principle! »IBM S/370 and VAX solution: execute twice – once read-only What about “RISC” processors? –For instance delayed branches? »Example: bne somewhere ld r1,(sp) »Precise exception state consists of two PCs: PC and nPC –Delayed exceptions: »Example: div r1, r2, r3 ld r1, (sp) »What if takes many cycles to discover divide by zero, but load has already caused page fault?
Lec 14.23 Precise Exceptions Precise state of the machine is preserved as if program executed up to the offending instruction –All previous instructions completed –Offending instruction and all following instructions act as if they have not even started –Same system code will work on different implementations –Difficult in the presence of pipelining, out-of-order execution,... –MIPS takes this position Imprecise system software has to figure out what is where and put it all back together Performance goals often lead designers to forsake precise interrupts –system software developers, user, markets etc. usually wish they had not done this Modern techniques for out-of-order execution and branch prediction help implement precise interrupts
Lec 14.24 Page Replacement Policies Why do we care about Replacement Policy? –Replacement is an issue with any cache –Particularly important with pages »The cost of being wrong is high: must go to disk »Must keep important pages in memory, not toss them out What about MIN? –Replace page that won’t be used for the longest time –Great, but can’t really know future… –Makes good comparison case, however What about RANDOM? –Pick random page for every replacement –Typical solution for TLB’s. Simple hardware –Pretty unpredictable – makes it hard to make real-time guarantees What about FIFO? –Throw out oldest page. Be fair – let every page live in memory for same amount of time. –Bad, because throws out heavily used pages instead of infrequently used pages
Lec 14.25 Replacement Policies (Con’t) What about LRU? –Replace page that hasn’t been used for the longest time –Programs have locality, so if something not used for a while, unlikely to be used in the near future. –Seems like LRU should be a good approximation to MIN. How to implement LRU? Use a list! –On each use, remove page from list and place at head –LRU page is at tail Problems with this scheme for paging? –Need to know immediately when each page used so that can change position in list… –Many instructions for each hardware access In practice, people approximate LRU (more later) Page 6Page 7Page 1Page 2 Head Tail (LRU)
Lec 14.26 Summary TLB is cache on translations –Fully associative to reduce conflicts –Can be overlapped with cache access Demand Paging: –Treat memory as cache on disk –Cache miss get page from disk Transparent Level of Indirection –User program is unaware of activities of OS behind scenes –Data can be moved without affecting application correctness Software-loaded TLB –Fast Path: handled in hardware (TLB hit with valid=1) –Slow Path: Trap to software to scan page table Precise Exception specifies a single instruction for which: –All previous instructions have completed (committed state) –No following instructions nor actual instruction have started Replacement policies –FIFO: Place pages on queue, replace page at end –MIN: replace page that will be used farthest in future –LRU: Replace page that hasn’t be used for the longest time