Report Number: CSL-TR-93-588
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: Update-Based Cache Coherence Protocols for Scalable Shared-Memory Multiprocessors
Author: Glasco, David B.
Author: Delagi, Bruce A.
Author: Flynn, Michael J.
Date: November 1993
Abstract: In this paper, two hardware-controlled update-based cache coherence protocols are presented. The paper discusses the two major disadvantages of the update protocols: inefficiency of updates and the mismatch between the granularity of synchronization and the data transfer. The paper presents two enhancements to the update-based protocols, a write combining scheme and a finer grain synchronization, to overcome these disadvantages. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of these enhancements that, when used together, allow the update-based protocols to significantly improve the execution time of a set of scientific applications when compared to three invalidate-based protocols.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/93/588/CSL-TR-93-588.pdf