1. Logical Protocol to Physical Design
Implementation must contend with
Correctness
High Performance
Minimal extra hardware
Correctness: a cache-coherent memory system must satisfy the requirements of coherence. It should ensure that stale copies are found and invalidated or updated on writes, and it should provide write serialization.
complications: Actions considered atomic at abstract level are not necessarily at hardware level.
CS258 S99

2. Logical to Physical Design
Performance issues:
We want to pipeline memory operations and allow many operations to be outstanding at the same time rather than waiting for each operation to complete before starting another one.. This is done for the sake of performance!
However, correctness may be compromised ! Out-of-order execution, speculation complicate this issue.

3. Logical Protocol Algorithm
Set of States
Events causing state transitions
Actions on Transition
While actions like PrWr/BusRdx seem atomic in reality they may not be in hardware!

4. Figure1: a uniprocessor cache design
Reality
Protocol defines logical FSM for each block.
Cache controller FSM
Bus controller FSM
Other $Ctrls Get bus
Multiple Bus trnxs
Multi-Level Caches
Split-Transaction Busses S
Tag
Data
Proc
$ Ctrl
Bus Controller
Cache
controller
Cache
Figure1: a uniprocessor cache design
Let’s first see an atomic bus and a single-level cache design !!

5. Typical Bus Protocol Bus state machine Assert request for busBG
BReq BR
BGnt
Addr OK BG OK
Addr
Data
others
may get
bus OK OK
Data
Bus state machine
Assert request for bus
Wait for bus grant
Drive address and command lines
Wait for command to be accepted by relevant device
Transfer data

6. Correctness Issues Fulfill conditions for coherence and consistency
write propagation and atomicity
Write serialization
Free of :
Deadlock: all system activity ceases
Cycle of resource dependences
Livelock: no processor makes forward progress although transactions are performed at hardware level
e.g. simultaneous writes in invalidation-based protocol
each requests ownership, invalidating other, but loses it before winning arbitration for the bus
Starvation: one or more processors make no forward progress while others do.
Often not completely eliminated (not likely, not catastrophic)
(a)
(b)

7. Preliminary Design Issues
How should we design of cache controller and tags given that both processor and bus controller need access to the tags for look up?
How and when to present snoop results on bus? Recall that snoop results are presented as bus transactions
Dealing with write-backs
Even though the bus is atomic, the overall set of actions to satisfy a memory operation uses other resources (such as cache controllers) and is not atomic: this can introduce race conditions
New issues deadlock, livelock, starvation, serialization, etc.

8. Contention for Cache Tags (See Fig1)
Cache controller must monitor bus and processor
Can view as two controllers: bus-side, and processor-side
With single-level cache: dual tags (not data) or dual-ported tag RAM
must reconcile when updated, but usually only looked up
Respond to bus transactions
Tags and state used by processor
Instead of
data
tags
Tags and state used by Bus Snooper
When a state or a tag for a block is updated
Both tags need to be updated

9. Snoop Results
Snooping introduces a new issue to bus transaction. For snooping caches, each cache must check the address against its tags, and the collective result of the snoop from all caches must be reported on the bus before the transaction can proceed.
One particular function of the snoop result is to inform memory whether it should respond to the request or whether some cache is holding a modified copy of the block so an alternative action is necessary. The questions are
When is the snoop result reported on the bus? and
In what form (how)?

10. Reporting Snoop Results: How
Reporting Snoop Results: How? (in what form should snoop responses be reported on the bus?)
Collective response from $’s must appear on bus
Example: in MESI protocol, need to know
Is block dirty; i.e. should memory respond or not?
Is block shared; i.e. transition to E or S state on read miss?
Three wired-OR signals
Shared: asserted if any cache has a copy
Dirty: asserted if some cache has a dirty copy (modified copy)
needn’t know which, since it will do what’s necessary
Snoop-valid: asserted when OK to check other two signals
actually inhibit until OK to check
Illinois MESI requires priority scheme for cache-to-cache transfers
Which cache should supply data when in shared state?
Commercial implementations allow memory to provide data

11. Reporting Snoop Results: How?
In case of MESI protocol
The requesting cache controller needs to know whether the requested memory block is in other processor’s cache so that it can decide whether to load the block in E or S state.
In addition, the memory needs to know whether any cache has the block in modified state (M), in which case the memory need not respond.
Solutions
Refer slide 8 11

12. Reporting Snoop Results: When?(3 options)
Memory needs to know what, if anything, to do
Fixed number of clocks from address appearing on bus
Dual tags required to reduce contention with processor
Still must be conservative (update both tags on write: E -> M) (assume worst-case delay)
Pentium Pro, HP servers, Sun Enterprise
Variable delay
Memory assumes cache will supply data till all say “sorry”
Less conservative, more flexible, more complex
Memory can fetch data and hold just in case (SGI Challenge)
Immediately: Bit-per-block in memory
Extra hardware complexity in commodity main memory system
(Extra bit per block in memory indicating whether this block is modified in one of caches or not). If modified, memory does not respond, if not it responds. Complexity extra hardware

13. Writebacks:
Complicate design because they involve two blocks and hence 2 bus transactions!! An incoming block, and an outgoing (modified block) that is being replaced.
To allow processor to continue working on a cache miss that causes a write back, we would like to delay the write back and instead first service the miss that caused it. This requires two additional requirements:
a) Need for write back buffers ! Will be used to temporarily store the block being replaced while the new block is being brought into the cache and before the bus can be reacquired for a second transaction to complete the write back.
b) Must handle bus transactions relevant to buffered block
snoop the WB buffer
which requires an address comparator be added to snoop on write-back buffer! 13

14. Basic design Single level WB cache Bus atomic
Bus arbitration not shown
Some other coordination signals not shown
Bus-side controller snoops on the cache tags and WB tags
Wired-OR signal: serve as acknowledgement to the initiator that all caches have seen the request and taken appropriate action
Processor initiates transaction by placing address and command on the bus 14

15. Non-Atomic State Transitions
Memory operation involves many actions by many entities, incl. bus
Look up cache tags, bus arbitration, actions by other controllers, ...
Even if bus is atomic, overall set of actions is not
Can have race conditions among components of different operations
Suppose P1 and P2 attempt to write cached block A simultaneously
Each decides to issue BusUpgr to allow S –> M
See example next slide.
Issues
Must handle requests for other blocks while waiting to acquire bus
Must handle requests for this block A
e.g. if P2 wins, P1 must invalidate copy and modify request to BusRdX 15

16. Example of Race Conditions
Suppose P1 & P2 cache same block A in shared state S. And both simultaneously issue a write to block A.
Show how P1 may have a request outstanding waiting for the bus while a transaction from P2 appears on the bus, How do you solve this complication?
Scenario: P1’s write will check its cache determines that it needs to change the state of the block from S->M before it can write data into the block, and issues an upgrade bus request (a BusUpgr: similar to BusRdX but does not cause memory or other caches to respond with the data for the block)
In the meantime, P2 has also issued a BusRdX for A, and it may have won bus arbitration for the bus first. P1’s controller will see the bus transaction and must downgrade the state of the block from S to I in its cache. 16

17. Example of Race Conditions
Otherwise, when P2’s transaction is over, A will be in modified state in P2 and in shared state in P1, which violates the protocol.
But now the upgrade bus request that has P1 outstanding is no longer appropriate and must be replaced with a Read-Exclusive request.
How do we implement this?? 17

18. solution
A controller must also be able to check addresses snooped from the bus against its own outstanding request and modify the latter if necessary.

19. Handling Non-atomicity: Transient States
Two types of states
Stable (e.g. MESI)
Transient or Intermediate
Example:
In response to a write operation to a
Block in the S state, the cache
Controller:
1) Begins arbitration for the bus by issuing
Busrequest
2) And transitions to the intermediate
State S M.
The state transitions to M upon a busgrant.
However, if a BusRdX is observed then the
Controller treats the block as having been
Invalidated and transition to the I  M state.
Increases complexity
e.g. don’t use BusUpgr, rather other mechanisms to avoid data transfer 19