GATE CS 2017 Set 2 — Question 45
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Computer Organization & Architecture → Memory Hierarchy & Cache → Cache Numericals
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Question
The read access times and the hit ratios for different caches in a memory hierarchy are as given below.
The read access time of main memory is 90 nanoseconds. Assume that the caches use the referred-word-first read policy and the write back policy. Assume that all the caches are direct mapped caches. Assume that the dirty bit is always 0 for all the blocks in the caches. In execution of a program, 60% of memory reads are for instruction fetch and 40% are for memory operand fetch. The average read access time in nanoseconds (up to 2 decimal places) is ________.
| Cache | Read access time (in nanoseconds) | Hit ratio |
|---|---|---|
| I-cache | 2 | 0.8 |
| D-cache | 2 | 0.9 |
| L2-cache | 8 | 0.9 |
Correct answer
4.72 to 4.72
Solution
The average read access time (ARAT) is calculated as a weighted average of instruction fetch time and data fetch time:
For a multi-level hierarchy (L1 -> L2 -> Main Memory):
For a multi-level hierarchy (L1 -> L2 -> Main Memory):
1.Instruction Fetch ARAT:
ns2.Data Fetch ARAT:
ns3.Total ARAT:
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