A low-power I-cache design with tag-comparison reuse

Abstract

This paper reports design and evaluation results of a low-energy I-cache architecture, called history-based tag-comparison (HBTC) cache. The HBTC cache attempts to re-use tag-comparison results to detect and eliminate unnecessary memory-array activations. We have performed cycle accurate simulations, and have designed an SRAM core based on a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. As a result, it has been observed that the HBTC approach can achieve 60% of energy reduction, with only 0.3% performance degradation, compared to a conventional cache. Furthermore, we have also evaluated the potential of the HBTC cache by combining with other low-energy techniques.