CSC/ECE 506 Spring 2012/8b va
Update and adaptive coherence protocols on real architectures, and power considerations
Introduction
In a shared memory - shared-bus multiprocessor system, cache coherency protocol maintains one of the important roles to propagate changes from one cache to the others. But in most of the cases, update and invalidate coherence protocols are the main source of bus contention that can lead to increased number of bus busy cycles, thus increasing program execution time because the processor may stall while its cache is waiting for the bus. To avoid the bus contention this article brings up some high performance multiprocessor based adaptive hybrid protocol strategies.<ref>shared memory</ref>
Coherence protocols
In general terms, a coherency protocol is a protocol which maintains the consistency between all the caches in a system of shared memory. The protocol maintains memory coherence according to a specific consistency model. Older multiprocessors support the sequential consistency model, while modern shared memory systems typically support the release consistency or weak consistency models.
Transitions between states in any specific implementation of these protocols may vary. For example, an implementation may choose different update and invalidation transitions such as update-on-read, update-on-write, invalidate-on-read, or invalidate-on-write. The choice of transition may affect the amount of inter-cache traffic, which in turn may affect the amount of cache bandwidth available for actual work. This should be taken into consideration in the design of distributed software that could cause strong contention between the caches of multiple processors. Various models and protocols have been devised for maintaining cache coherence, such as MSI protocol, MESI (aka Illinois protocol), MOSI, MOESI, MERSI, MESIF, write-once, Synapse, Berkeley, Firefly and Dragon protocol
For the purpose of the main study, this article will focus on the two commonly used coherence protocols: Write-Invalidate (WI) and Write-Update (WU)
Write-Invalidate Protocol In a Write-Invalidate Protocol a processor invalidates all other processors cache block and then updates its own cache block without further bus operations.
Write-Invalidate Protocol
- Under the invalidation scheme, updates are only propagated when data are read, and several updates can take place before communication is necessary. Against this must be placed the cost of invalidating read-only copies before a write can occur. In the multiple-reader-single-write scheme described, this is potentially expensive. But, if the read/write ratio is sufficiently high, then the parallelism obtained by allowing multiple simultaneous readers offsets this cost. Where the read/write ratio is relatively small, a single-reader-single-writer scheme can be more appropriate: i.e, one in which at most one process may be granted read-only access at a time.
- This article focuses on the write-update protocol leaving the reader to investigate write-invalidate protocol through own research. If the reader wants to seek more information regarding this protocol, please go to this page as it will provide insightful and meaning description and demonstration on how this protocol operates.
Write-Update Protocol
Interchangeably,in a Write-Uptade Protocol, a processor broadcasts updates to shared data to other caches so other cashes stay coherent. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
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Write-Update protocol: Some of the common updated protocols are Dragon and Firefly protocols.
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Dragon Protocol
Table 1: Definitions of additional notations in the state transition diagram of Dragon Protocol 
Figure 2 depicts the state transition diagram of the Dragon protocol - This protocol was first proposed by researchers at Xerox PARC for their Dragon multiprocessor system. The Dragon protocol ensures that data is always valid if the tag matches. Hence, there is no explicit invalid state even though it reserves a miss mode bit for compulsory misses. The Dragon protocol consists of four states:
- Exclusive (E): means that only one cache (this cache) has a copy of the block, and it has not been modified (the main memory is up-to-date)
- Shared-clean (Sc): means that potentially two or more caches (including this one) have this block, and main memory may or may not be up-to-date
- Shared-modified(Sm): means that potentially two or more caches have this block, main memory is not up-to-date, and it is this cache's responsibility to update the main memory at the time this block is replaced from the cache; a block may be in this state in only one cache at a time; however it is quite possible that one cache has the block in this state, while others have it in shared-clean state
- Modified (M): signifies exclusive ownership as before; the block is modified and present in this cache alone, main memory is stale, and it is this cache's responsibility to supply the data and to update main memory on replacement.
Figure 2 depicts the state transition diagram of the Dragon protocol, and Table 1 details the additional notations in the state transition diagram.
Firefly Protocol
Table 2: Definitions of additional notations in the state transition diagram of Figure 3 - The Firefly protocol was developed by DEC for microprocessor workstation development.
- The Firefly protocol also ensures that data is always valid if the tag matches. Hence, there is no explicit invalid state even though it reserves a miss mode bit for compulsory misses. The Firefly protocol consists of the following three states:
- Valid (V): This block has a coherent copy of the memory. There is only one copy of the data in caches.
- Dirty (D): The block is the only copy of the memory and it is incoherent. This is the only state that generates a write-back when the block is replaced in the cache.
- Shared (S): This block has a coherent copy of the memory. The data may be possibly shared, but its content is not modified.
Figure 3 depicts the state transition diagram of the Firefly protocol, and Table 2 details the additional notations in the state transition diagram.
Figure 3: State diagram of the Firefly protocol. Adaptive coherence protocols
Disadvantages of Write-Invalidate Protocol
- Any update/write operation in a processor invalidates the shared cache blocks of other processors, forcing other caches to do the bus request to reload the new data that turns to increase high bus bandwidth. This can be worse if one processor frequently updates the cache and other processor stalls to read the same cache block. For a sequence n that writes in one processor and read from other processor, WI protocol makes n invalidate and n cache block read operations.<ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors - White-Invalidate</ref>
Disadvantages of Write-Update Protocol
- Update protocol is advantageous in this case because it updates only the cache blocks n times. But update protocol sometimes refresh unnecessary data of other processors cache for too long, hence fewer cache blocks are available for more useful data. It tends to increase conflict and capacity cache misses.<ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors - Write-Update</ref>
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Block states
- Invalid: All subblocks are invalid
- Valid Exclusive: All valid subblocks in this block are not present in any other caches. All subblocks that are clean shared may be written without a bus
- transaction. Any subblocks in the block may be invalid. There also may be Dirty blocks which must be written back upon replesment.
- Clean Shared: The block contains subblocks that are either Clean Shares or Invalid. The block can be replaced without a bus transaction.
- Dirty Shared: Subblocks in this block may be in any state. There may be Dirty blocks which must be written back on replacement.<ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
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Finite state diagram of block/ line states is as follows:
Figure 4. Finite state diagram of block Subblock states
- Invalid: The subblock is invalid
- Clean Shared: A read access to the block will succeed. Unless the block the subblock is a part of is in the Valid Exclusive state, a write to the subblock will force an invalidation transaction on the bus.
- Dirty Shared: The subblock is treated like a Clean Shared sbublock, except that it must be written back on replacement. At most one cache will have a given subblock in either the Dirty Shared or Dirty state.
- Dirty: The subblocks is exclusive to this cache. It must be written back on replacement. Read and write access to this subblock hit with no bus transaction.
Finite state diagram of subblock is as follows:
Figure 5. Finite state diagram of Sub-block Basic idea of this protocol is to do more data transfer between caches and less off-chip memory access. In contrast with Illinois protocol, on read misses, shared cache block sends cached sublock and also all other clean and dirty shared subblockes in that block. If the subblock is in the main memory, cache snooper pass the information of caches subblocks and memory will provide the requested subblock along with sublocks which are not currently cached. On write to clean subblockes and write misses, snooper invalidates only the subblock to be written to avoid the penalties associated with false sharing.
In contrast to the Illinois MESI Protocol, which requires extra power cycle to maintain the extra states and additional logic, the subblock protocol reduces number of cache blocks, compared to any cache update protocols, and thus reduces power consumption.. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
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Example 1
- Suppose invalidation ratio (R) = 5
- Current threshold block (Tb) = 3
- If the processor writes 4 times before it is accessed by other processor, according to the above logic, Tb will be 4.
- This means Tb is at the best possible value and only update can be issues.
Example 2
- Consider, R= 5 and Tb = 3 for a particular block
- If the processor writes 10 times before it is accessed by other processor
- Tb will be 2. (Decreased)
- So the protocol can incur a cost of 2 updates, 1 invalidate and 1 reread.
- After 2 more write, Tb will be 0 and invalidation will occur immediately.
- 1) What are the two commonly used coherence protocols?
- a) Token-based & Snooping-based
- b) Write-Update & Token-based
- c) Write-Invalidate & Write-Update
- d) Both a and c
- e) None of the above 2) A coherency protocol is a protocol which maintains __________ ____________ according to a specific ___________ ___________
- 1) System order / memory hierarchy
- 2) Memory coherence / consistency model
- 3) Bus hierarchy / system order
- 4) None of the above 3) Increasing bus bandwidth is most commonly seen in what protocol?
- a) Snooping-based
- b) Write-Invalidate
- c) Token-based
- d) Write-Update
- e) Both a and b 4) Increasing conflict and capacity cache missies is mostly seen in what protocol?
- a) Token-based
- b) Write-Update
- c) Snooping-based
- d) Write-Invalidate
- e) Both a and d 5) Due to the good use of _________ __________ some applications execute more quickly with large cache block size, where as others run better when cache block sizes are small by avoiding migratory data or ________ _________ between processors
- a) Spatial locality / false-sharing
- b) Equidistant locality /Sequential consistency
- c) Temporal locality/ true sharing
- d) Non of the above 6) The Subblock Protocol consists of four states: Invalid, Clean Shared, Dirty and __________. Name the missing state?
- a) Exclusive
- b) Valid
- c) Dirty Shared
- d) Shared 7) In the Subblock Protocol, all subblocks that are clean-shared may be written without a bus transaction. In what state is this achieved?
- a) Valid Exclusive
- b) Invalid
- c) Clean Shared
- d) Dirty Shared 8) Which protocol maintains a counter and invalidation threshold for each cache block to overcome the drawback of Write-Invalidates’ write after read problem?
- a) Snooping-based
- b) Write-Invalidate
- c) Subblock protocol
- d) Read-snarfing protocol
- e) Write-Update 9) Based on the simulation in this article, even though it was stated that Subblock Protocol worked better than MESI protocol in specific executions, in what circumstances the MESI Protocol would work better than Subblock Protocol?
- a) For larger block size since it MESI uses large block sizes
- b) For effectively supply the block to other processors whose blocks were invalidated in the past
- c) MESI will update the need to broadcast when the data is actively shared
- d) For small block size because Subblock Protocol uses large transfer block
- e) None of the above 10) Why was it stated that Read-snarfing protocol achieved the utilization of lower bus rate and higher application speedups.
- a) Because instructions on any given processor execute in partial program order, but may not propagate in that order
- b) Because it’s effective in reducing the amount of data transfer and number of bus transaction
- c) Because Write Update reduces all types of cache misses relative to Write Invalidate, therefore Read-snarfing gains performance
- d) Because multiple caches can be in its Shared State simultaneously.
- e) None of the above
Using the combination strategy like adaptive hybrid protocol can reduce nature of pathological behaviors of update and invalid protocols. This protocol should be applicable to a wide range of network characteristics and it should automatically adjust its behavior to achieve target goals in the face of changes in traffic patterns, node mobility and other network characteristics.
Consideration of cache architecture issue
Execution of applications also directly relate to the size of cache block. Some applications execute more quickly with large cache block size because they exhibit good spatial locality where as some applications run better when cache block sizes are small by avoiding migratory data or false sharing between processors. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
Hardware architecture
Most often, processor architecture maintains the same block size for both memory to cache, cache to memory transfer and coherence. This approach uses different block sizes for transfer and coherence based on application requirements. Normal cache has the following parameters: Capacity(C), Block size (L) and associativity (K). But sector cache divides the cache blocks into subblocks of size “b”. Though a sector cache (C, L, K, b) requires one extra state and some extra bus line to transmit bitmasks corresponding to the status of the subblocks in a particular block compare to normal cache(C, L, K) but maintains the same number of tag and state bits for L. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
Subblock protocol
This snoopy-based protocol mitigate the features of Illinois MESI protocol and write policies with subblock validation to take the advantages of both small and large cache block size by using subblock. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
Read-snarfing protocol
This is an enhancement to snoopy-cache coherence protocols that takes advantage of the inherent broadcast nature of the bus.
In contrast with MESI protocol, if one processor wants to reload data in its cache due cache miss, read-snarfing protocol will effectively supply the block to other processors whose blocks were invalidated in the past. Only one read is required to restore the block to all caches which are invalidated.
Protocol modifies the normal updated protocol by updating only those sub-blocks which are modified and update only need to broadcast when the data is actively shared. Read-snarfing protocol maintains a counter and invalidation threshold (Tb) for each cache block “b” to overcome the drawback of WI’s write after read problem. Protocol predicts the number of write operations happens on a single cache block before a read request to the same cache block. Invalidation request is being broadcasted when the write counter reaches the Tb and protocol dynamically adjust the value of Tb based on the nature of program execution.
Simple algorithm of Read-snarfing Random Walk protocol is as follows: Initially Tb of each cache block b is set to 0. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
// Number of Write operation happens before being accessed by other processor
If (most recent write run > R) {
If(Tb > 1) {
Tb--;
}
} else {
If(R > Tb) {
Tb++;
}
}
R = Invalidation Ratio which is (Ci + Cr) / Cu
Ci: The cost in bus cycles of an invalidation transaction
Cu: The cost in bus cycles of an update transaction
Cr: The cost in bus cycles of reading a cache block
Block will be invalidated immediately with no wasted updates when Threshold reduces to 0. When block is actively shared, block is not invalidated by adjusting the Tb upward. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors</ref>
Simulation result
For all simulated results, the considered subblock size (b) was 8 byte and two-way set-associative (K = 2). In order to minimize simulation time, data was only simulated with relatively large caches (C = 128K).
First, below are the results for the two applications (Gauss and Cholesky) that do well using large block sixes. Next, the data results for the three applications (MP3D, Topopt, and Pverify) that performs better using smaller block sixes are listed below. Finally, the report on results running Barnes, for which the choice of block size is not very important. The results of the simulation verified and compared the protocol with both usual and sector caches with 1, 4, 16 and 32 processors where usual cache uses Illinois protocol whereas sector cache uses read-snurfing protocol. <ref>Two techniques for improving performance on bus-based mu1tiprocessors - Simulation</ref>
Conclusion
This article used two techniques to improve application performance on bus-based multiprocessor. First technique was using subblock cache coherence protocol by implementing combination of large block and the subset with small cache blocks to take both, the advantages of spatial locality, and avoid false-sharing. The second technique was Read-snarfing in order to reduce the number of read misses caused by previous cache coherence protocol action. The simulation report above showed that subblock protocol works better than MESI protocol for the 64 byte cache block size, but for small block size Illinois protocol works better because subblock protocol uses large transfer block. In addition, Read-snarfing protocol is effective in reducing the amount of data transfer and number of bus transaction which turns out the utilization of lower bus rate and higher application speedups.
Quiz
The following quiz is intended for the reader to benefit from this article and to help achieve a complete understanding of the research. There are a total of 10 multiple-choice questions.
References
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