An FPGA implementation of a snoop cache with synchronization for a multiprocessor system-on-chip

FPGA based multiprocessor SoC (MPSoC) is an on-chip multiprocessor with fully programmable feature which can reduce development cost and achieve performance requirement. In order to provide an MPSoC with the low-overhead communication and synchronization methods, this paper attempts to introduce the TSVM (tagged shared variable memory) cache to a snooping cache on the MPSoC. The TSVM cache can improve a performance by combining communication and synchronization with the coherence maintenance. Using an FPGA, we evaluate how extending a conventional snooping cache affects circuitries and clock speed. As a result, the growth of hardware amount and the degradation of clock speed are only 5% and 2% respectively. It is also confirmed that the TSVM cache improves significantly performance and energy efficiency by stalling in synchronization.