Cache Prefetching

Cache prefetching is a memory latency hiding technique that attempts to bring data to the caches before the occurrence of a miss. A central aspect of all cache prefetching techniques is their ability to detect and predict particular memory reference patterns. In this paper we will introduce and compare how this is done for each of the speci c memory reference patterns that have been identi ed. Because most applications contain many di erent memory reference patterns, we will also discuss how prefetching techniques can be combined into a mechanism to deal with a larger number of memory reference patterns. Finally, we will discuss how applicable the currently used prefetching techniques are for a multimedia processing system.

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