Cache Line Aware Algorithm Design for Cache-Coherent Architectures

The increase in the number of cores per processor and the complexity of memory hierarchies make cache coherence key for programmability of current shared memory systems. However, ignoring its detailed architectural characteristics can harm performance significantly. In order to assist performance-centric programming, we propose a methodology to allow semi-automatic performance tuning with the systematic translation from an algorithm to an analytic performance model for cache line transfers. For this, we design a simple interface for cache line aware optimization, a translation methodology, and a full performance model that exposes the block-based design of caches to middleware designers. We investigate two different architectures to show the applicability of our techniques and methods: the many-core accelerator Intel Xeon Phi and a multi-core processor with a NUMA configuration (Intel Sandy Bridge). We use mathematical optimization techniques to tune synchronization algorithms to the microarchitectures, identifying three techniques to design and optimize data transfers in our model: single-use, single-step broadcast, and private cache lines.