Implementing stack simulation for highly-associative memories

Abstract

Prior to this work, all implementations of stack simulation [MGS70] required more than linear time to process an address trace. In particular these implementations are often slow for highly-associative memories and traces with poor locality, as can be found in simulations of tile systems. We describe a new implementation of stack simulation where the refrrenced block and its stack distance are found using a hash table rather than by traversing the stack. The key to this implementation is that designers are rarely interested in a continuum of memory sizes, but instead desire metrics for only a discrete set of alternatives (e.g., powers of two). Our experimental evaluation shows the run-time of the new implementation to be linear in address trace length and independent of trace locality. Kim, et al., [KHW91] present the results of this research in more detail.