MorphCache: A Reconfigurable Adaptive Multi-Level Cache Hierarchy

Given the diverse range of application characteristics that Chip MultiProcessors (CMPs) need to cater to, a "One-cache-topology-fits-all" design philosophy will clearly be inadequate. In this paper, the authors propose MorphCache, a Reconfigurable Adaptive Multi-level Cache hierarchy. MorphCache dynamically tunes a multi-level cache topology in a CMP to allow significantly different cache topologies to exist on the same architecture. Starting from per-core L2 and L3 cache slices as the basic design point, MorphCache alters the cache topology dynamically by merging or splitting cache slices and modifying the accessibility of different cache slice groups to different cores in a CMP.