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100 Hardware Reference Manual
Intel
®
IXP2800 Network Processor
Intel XScale
®
Core
3.6.2.3 Cache Policies
3.6.2.3.1 Cacheability
Data at a specified address is cacheable given the following:
• The MMU is enabled
• The cacheable attribute is set in the descriptor for the accessed address
• The data/mini-data cache is enabled
3.6.2.3.2 Read Miss Policy
The following sequence of events occurs when a cacheable load operation misses the cache:
1. The fill buffer is checked to see if an outstanding fill request already exists for that line.
— If so, the current request is placed in the pending buffer and waits until the previously
requested fill completes, after which it accesses the cache again, to obtain the request data
and returns it to the destination register.
— If there is no outstanding fill request for that line, the current load request is placed in the
fill buffer and a 32-byte external memory read request is made. If the pending buffer or fill
buffer is full, the Intel XScale
®
core will stall until an entry is available.
2. A line is allocated in the cache to receive the 32 bytes of fill data. The line selected is
determined by the round-robin pointer (see Section 3.6.2.4). The line chosen may contain a
valid line previously allocated in the cache. In this case both dirty bits are examined and if set,
the four words associated with a dirty bit that’s asserted will be written back to external
memory as a 4-word burst operation.
3. When the data requested by the load is returned from external memory, it is immediately sent
to the destination register specified by the load. A system that returns the requested data back
first, with respect to the other bytes of the line, will obtain the best performance.
4. As data returns from external memory, it is written into the cache in the previously allocated
line.
A load operation that misses the cache and is not cacheable makes a request from external memory
for the exact data size of the original load request. For example, LDRH requests exactly two bytes
from external memory, LDR requests four bytes from external memory, etc. This request is placed
in the fill buffer until, the data is returned from external memory, which is then forwarded back to
the destination register(s).