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Caches are
essential to gain the maximum performance
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from modern
microprocessors
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The performance
of a cache is close to that of SRAM
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but at the cost
of DRAM
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Caches can be
used to form the basis of a parallel
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computer
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Bus-based
multiprocessors do not scale well: max <
10
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nodes
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Larger-scale
shared-memory multiprocessors require
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more complicated
networks and protocols
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CC-NUMA is
becoming popular since systems can be
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built from
commodity components (chips, boards, OSs)
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and use existing
software
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e.g. HP/Convex,
Sequent, Data General, SGI, Sun, IBM
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