Intel IXC1100, IXP42X 3.2.1.1 Instruction-Cache Miss, Example: 32K byte cache

Intel® IXP42X Product Line of Network Processors and IXC1100 Control Plane Processor
September 2006 DM
Order Number: 252480-006US 53
Intel XScale® Processor—Intel® IXP42X product line and IXC1100 control plane processors
A fetched line will be written into the cache if it is cacheable. Code is designated as
cacheable when the Memory Management Unit (MMU) is disabled or when the MMU is
enable and the cacheable (C) bit is set to 1 in its corresponding page. See “Memory
Management Unit” on page 44 for a discussion on page attributes.
Note that an instruction fetch may “miss” the cache but “hit” one of the fetch buffers.
When this happens, the requested instruction will be delivered to the instruction
decoder in the same manner as a cache “hit.”
Disabling the cache prevents any lines from being written into the instruction cache.
Although the cache is disabled, it is still accessed and may generate a “hit” if the data is
already in the cache.
Disabling the instruction cache does not disable instruction buffering that may occur
within the instruction fetch buffers. Two 8-word instruction fetch buffers will always be
enabled in the cache disabled mode. So long as instruction fetches continue to “hit”
within either buffer (even in the presence of forward and backward branches), no
external fetches for instructions are generated. A miss causes one or the other buffer to
be filled from external memory using the fill policy described in “Instruction-Cache
‘Miss’” on page 53.
3.2.1.1 Instruction-Cache ‘Miss’
An instruction-cache “miss” occurs when the requested instruction is not found in the
instruction fetch buffers or instruction cache; a fetch request is then made to external
memory. The instruction cache can handle up to two “misses.” Each external fetch
request uses a fetch buffer that holds 32-bytes and eight valid bits, one for each word.
A miss causes the following:
Figure 8. Instruction Cache Organization
way 0
way 1
way 31
8 Words (cache line)
Set 31
CAM DATA
way 0
way 1
way 31
8 Words (cache line)
Set 1
CAM DATA
way 0
way 1
way 31
8 Words (cache line)
Set Index
Set 0
Tag
Instruction Word
(4 bytes)
Instruction Address (Virtual) — 32-Kbyte Cache
31 109 54 210
Tag Set Index Word
Word Select
CAM DATA
This example
shows Set 0 being
selected by the
set index.
CAM: Content
Addressable Memory
Example: 32K byte cache