Bump-pointer method caching for embedded Java processors

Abstract

Caching of complete methods has been suggested to simplify the determination of the worst-case execution time (WCET) in the presence of a memory hierarchy [9]. While this previous approach limits possible cache misses to method invocations and returns, it still assumes a conventional blocked organization of the cache memory. This paper proposes and evaluates a new approach organizing the cached methods within a linked list while tag matching is limited to a sliding window of at most three methods over this linked list. The main advantages of this approach are the avoidance of low block utilization by small methods through bump-pointer space allocation and a further simplification of the WCET analysis by an easy miss prediction based solely on call stack information available locally.