Limiting the number of dirty entries in a computer cache

摘要

A cache system improves performance by limiting the number of dirty entries in a cache. The cache system may further improve performance by limiting the number of dirty entries in the cache that might be subject to a cache-to-cache transfer. In a first example, a cache system counts the total number of dirty entries in the cache and preemptively evicts at least one dirty entry when the count exceeds a predetermined threshold. In a variation, a cache system counts dirty cache entries that result from a cache-to-cache transfer, and evicts at least one dirty entry that results from a cache-to-cache transfer when the number exceeds a predetermined threshold.