License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECRTS.2017.26
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-71589
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2017/7158/
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Blaß, Tobias ; Hahn, Sebastian ; Reineke, Jan

Write-Back Caches in WCET Analysis

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LIPIcs-ECRTS-2017-26.pdf (0.8 MB)

Abstract

Write-back caches are a popular choice in embedded microprocessors as they promise higher performance than write-through caches. So far, however, their use in hard real-time systems has been prohibited by the lack of adequate worst-case execution time (WCET) analysis support.

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to statically analyze the behavior of write-back caches. Prior work took an "eviction-focussed perspective", answering for each potential cache miss: May this miss evict a dirty cache line and thus cause a write back? We complement this approach by exploring a "store-focussed perspective", answering for each store: May this store dirtify a clean cache line and thus cause a write back later on?

Experimental evaluation demonstrates substantial precision improvements when both perspectives are combined. For most benchmarks, write-back caches are then preferable to write-through caches in terms of the computed WCET bounds.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{bla_et_al:LIPIcs:2017:7158,
  author =	{Tobias Bla{\ss} and Sebastian Hahn and Jan Reineke},
  title =	{{Write-Back Caches in WCET Analysis}},
  booktitle =	{29th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems (ECRTS 2017)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-037-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{76},
  editor =	{Marko Bertogna},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2017/7158},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-71589},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECRTS.2017.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: write-back caches, real-time systems, WCET analysis, cache analysis}
}

Keywords: write-back caches, real-time systems, WCET analysis, cache analysis
Collection: 29th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems (ECRTS 2017)
Issue Date: 2017
Date of publication: 23.06.2017

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