Transient behavior of cache memories

A cache is a small, fast associative memory located between a central processor and primary memory and used to hold copies of the contents of primary memory locations. A key performance measure of a cache is the miss ratio: the fraction of processor references which are not satisfied by the cache and result in primary memory references. The miss ratio is sometimes measured by running a single program to completion; however, in real systems rarely does such uninterrupted execution occur. In this paper a mathematical model is developed which predicts the effect on the miss ratio of running a program in a sequence of interrupted execution intervals. Results from the model are compared to measured miss ratios of real programs executing in an interrupted execution environment.