Replacement policies (LRU, Random) are currently considered as array
indexing methods, but have completely different functionalities:
- Array indexers determine the possible locations for block allocation.
This information is used to generate replacement candidates when
conflicts happen.
- Replacement policies determine which of the replacement candidates
should be evicted to make room for new allocations.
For this reason, they were split into different classes. Advantages:
- Easier and more straightforward to implement other replacement
policies (RRIP, LFU, ARC, ...)
- Allow easier future implementation of cache organization schemes
As now we can't assure the use of sets, the previous way to create a
true LRU is not viable. Now a timestamp_bits parameter controls how
many bits are dedicated for the timestamp, and a true LRU can be
achieved through an infinite number of bits (although a few bits suffice
in practice).
Change-Id: I23750db121f1474d17831137e6ff618beb2b3eda
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/8501
Reviewed-by: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>
Maintainer: Nikos Nikoleris <nikos.nikoleris@arm.com>
