摘要 |
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates flow control to support pipelined accesses to a cache memory. When an access to the cache memory generates a miss, the system increments a number of outstanding misses that are currently in process for a set in the cache to which the miss is directed. If the number of outstanding misses is greater than or equal to a threshold value, the system stalls generation of subsequent accesses to the cache memory until the number of outstanding misses for each set in the cache memory falls below the threshold value. Upon receiving a cache line from a memory subsystem in response to an outstanding miss, the system identifies a set that the outstanding miss is directed to. The system then installs the cache line in an entry associated with the set. The system also decrements a number of outstanding misses that are currently in process for the set. If the number of outstanding misses falls below the threshold value as a result of decrementing, and if no other set has a number of outstanding misses that is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the system removes the stall condition so that subsequent accesses can be generated for the cache memory.
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