A multi-level hierarchical cache coherence protocol for multiprocessors

In order to meet the computational needs of the next decade, shared-memory processors must be scalable. Though single shared-bus architectures have been successful in the past, lack of bus bandwidth restricts the number of processors that can be effectively put on a single bus machine. One architecture that has been proposed to solve the limited bandwidth problem consists of processors connected via a tree hierarchy of buses. The authors present a tool to study a hierarchical bus based shared-memory system. They highlight the main features of a hierarchical cache coherence protocol and give some preliminary performance results obtained via an instruction level simulator.<>