A Low Power TLB Structure for Embedded Systems

Abstract

We present a new two-level TLB (translationlook-aside buffer) architecture that integrates a 2-waybanked filter TLB with a 2-way banked main TLB. Theobjective is to reduce power consumption in embeddedprocessors by distributing the accesses to TLB entriesacross the banks in a balanced manner. First, an advancedfiltering technique is devised to reduce access power byadopting a sub-bank structure. Second, a bank-associativestructure is applied to each level of the TLB hierarchy.Simulation results show that the Energy*Delay productcan be reduced by about 40.9% compared to a fullyassociativeTLB, 24.9% compared to a micro-TLB with4+32 entries, and 12.18% compared to a micro-TLB with16+32 entries.