Latency sensitivity-based cache partitioning for heterogeneous multi-core architecture

Shared last-level cache (LLC) management is a critical design issue for heterogeneous multi-cores. In this paper, we observe two major challenges: the contribution of LLC latency to overall performance varies among applications/cores and also across time; overlooking the off-chip latency factor often leads to adverse effects on overall performance. Hence, we propose a Latency Sensitivity-based Cache Partitioning (LSP) framework, including a lightweight runtime mechanism to quantify the latency-sensitivity and a new cost function to guide the LLC partitioning. Results show that LSP improves the overall throughput by 8% on average (27% at most), compared with the state-of-the-art partitioning mechanism, TAP.