Digital Design & Computer Architecture - Lecture 24: Advanced Caches (Spring 2022)

Why It Matters

Understanding cache associativity, large‑scale memory hierarchies and emerging remote‑memory systems is critical as modern data‑heavy applications strain traditional caching assumptions and drive new hardware/software co‑designs. These trends affect performance, system architecture decisions, and where computation should be placed to reduce data movement.

Summary

In this lecture on advanced caches the instructor reviews memory hierarchy principles and current extensions, including remote memory and memory-blade architectures used to support data‑intensive applications. He revisits basic cache designs (direct‑mapped, set‑associative, fully associative), explaining how associativity trades off conflict flexibility against implementation complexity and search cost at large scales. The talk emphasizes that workloads with heavy random access are eroding traditional cache advantages and motivates designs that push computation closer to memory. The lecture also previews multi‑core/multiprocessor caching challenges and pointers to related research.

Original Description

Digital Design and Computer Architecture, ETH Zürich, Spring 2022 (https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/spring2022/)

Lecture 24: Advanced Caches

Lecturer: Professor Onur Mutlu (https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/)

Date: May 27, 2022

Lecture 24 Slides (pptx): https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/spring2022/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=onur-digitaldesign_comparch-2022-lecture24-advanced-caches-beforelecture.pptx

Lecture 24 Slides (pdf): https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/spring2022/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=onur-digitaldesign_comparch-2022-lecture24-advanced-caches-beforelecture.pdf

Recommended Reading:

====================

A Modern Primer on Processing in Memory

https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.03112

Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Computing Systems

https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.12381

RowHammer: A Retrospective

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/RowHammer-Retrospective_ieee_tcad19.pdf

Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer

https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.07613

RECOMMENDED LECTURE VIDEOS & PLAYLISTS:

========================================

Computer Architecture Fall 2021 Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yfkM_5EFgo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-Mnk1PxjEIG32HAGILkTOF

Digital Design and Computer Architecture Spring 2021 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbC0EZY8yw4&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi_uej3aY39YB5pfW4SJ7LlN

Featured Lectures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVYCchBGNVc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8VrmOTz44l2WupethSdh-M&index=1

Interview with Professor Onur Mutlu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ffSEKZhmvo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8VrmOTz44l2WupethSdh-M&index=9

The Story of RowHammer Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgd7PHQQ1AI&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=39

Accelerating Genome Analysis Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7sn41lH-4A&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=41

Memory-Centric Computing Systems Tutorial at IEDM 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3sEaINPBOE&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=35

Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Machines Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTieZPY4Wmc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=38

Computer Architecture Fall 2020 Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3mPdZA-Fmc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi9xidyIgBxUz7xRPS-wisBN

Digital Design and Computer Architecture Spring 2020 Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJBmIaUneB0&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi_FRrloMa2fUYWPGiZUBQo2

Public Lectures by Onur Mutlu, Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgiZlSOcGFM&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl

Computer Architecture at Carnegie Mellon Spring 2015 Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLP_X4wyHbY&list=PL5PHm2jkkXmi5CxxI7b3JCL1TWybTDtKq

Rethinking Memory System Design Lecture @stanfordonline :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7xZLNMIY1E&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=4