High-Performance Embedded Computing

2.6 Processor Memory Hierarchy 89

The Razor microarchitecture does not cause an erroneous operation to be

recalculated in the same stage. Rather, it forwards the operation to a later stage.

This avoids having a stage with a systematic problem stall the pipeline with an

indefinite number of recalculations.

The memory hierarchy is a critical determinant of overall system performance

and power consumption. This section reviews some basic concepts in the design

of memory hierarchies and how they can be exploited in the design of embedded

processors. We start by introducing a basic model of memory components that

can be used to evaluate various hardware and ...