METHOD AND DEVICE FOR REDUCING DELAY OF SET ASSOCIATIVE CACHE BY SET PREDICTION

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent access to a set associative cache from being delayed by generating set selection information and storing the set selection information in a position where it is made usable so as to retrieve data from a memory before memory selection information arrives from from a selection-side cache. SOLUTION: The set selection information 28 is sent directly to the directory multiplexer 14 and array multiplexer 16 of a set associative cache with a physical tag. A physical address cache includes a conversion index buffer (TLB) 26 for converting a virtual address 18 into a physical address used by a cache directory 10 in contrast with a virtual address cache. The set selection information 28 is sent directly to the array multiplexer 16 and then data can be retrieved from a cache array 12 before multiplexer selection data from the directory multiplexer 14 to the array multiplexer 16 becomes usable.