A data prefetching mechanism for object-oriented embedded systems using run-time profiling

Abstract

A table-based implementation of an application specific data prefetching approach is presented in this paper. This approach is proposed to improve the performance of the application specific instruction-set processors (ASIP) we develop customized to an object-oriented application. In this approach, the cache controller prefetches all data fields of an object required by a class method, when the class method is invoked. In the proposed table-based implementation, the cache controller monitors the class method calls and records the index of object data members that each method accessed. This information is used to prefetch the data items needed by a class method on next invocations of that method. This approach adapts the prefetching mechanism to the running application. The experimental results show that on average, this prefetching approach improves the miss ratio by 65%.