Pipewine burst cache

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In computer engineering, de creation and devewopment of de pipewine burst cache memory is an integraw part in de devewopment of de superscawar architecture. It was introduced in de mid 1990s as a repwacement for de Synchronous Burst Cache and de Asynchronous Cache and is stiww in use tiww date in computers. It basicawwy increases de speed of de operation of de cache memory by minimizing de wait states and hence maximizing de processor computing speed. Impwementing de techniqwes of pipewining and bursting, high performance computing is assured. It works on de principwe of parawwewism, de very principwe on which de devewopment of superscawar architecture rests. Pipewine burst cache can be found in DRAM controwwers and chipset designs.[1]


In a processor-based system, de speed of de processor is awways more dan dat of de main memory. As a resuwt, unnecessary wait-states are devewoped when instructions or data are being fetched from de main memory. This causes a hampering of de performance of de system. A cache memory is basicawwy devewoped to increase de efficiency of de system and to maximise de utiwisation of de entire computationaw speed of de processor.[2]

The performance of de processor is highwy infwuenced by de medods empwoyed to transfer data and instructions to and from de processor. The wess de time needed for de transfers de better de processor performance.

The Pipewine Burst Cache is basicawwy a storage area for a processor dat is designed to be read from or written to in a pipewined succession of four data transfers. As de name suggests 'pipewining', de transfers after de first transfer happen before de first transfer has arrived at de processor. It was devewoped as an awternative to asynchronous cache and synchronous burst cache.

Pipewine Burst Cache gained widespread adoption starting wif de rewease of de Intew 430FX chipset in 1995.

Principwes of operation[edit]

The Pipewine Burst Cache is based on two principwes of operation, namewy:

Burst Mode[edit]

In dis mode, de memory contents are prefetched before dey are reqwested.
For a typicaw cache, each wine is 32 bytes wide meaning dat, transfers, to and from de cache, occur 32 bytes (256 bits) at a time. The data pads are however onwy 8 bytes wide. This means dat four operations are needed for a singwe cache transfer. If not for burst mode each transfer wouwd reqwire a separate address to be provided. But since de transfers are to be done from consecutive memory wocations dere is no need to specify a different address after de first one. Using de techniqwe of Bursting, de transfers of successive data bytes can take pwace widout specifying de remaining addresses. This hewps in speed improvement.[3]

Pipewining Mode[edit]

In dis mode, one memory vawue can be accessed in Cache at de same time dat anoder memory vawue is accessed in DRAM. The pipewining operation suggests dat de transfer of data and instructions from or to de cache is divided into stages. Each stage is kept busy by one operation aww de time. This is just wike de concept used in an assembwy wine. This operation overcame de defects of seqwentiaw memory operations which invowved a wot of time wastage and decrease in de processor speed.[4]


Wif de hewp of de above two principwes of operations expwained, a Pipewine Burst Cache is impwemented. In dis cache, transferring of data, from or to a new wocation, takes muwtipwe cycwes for initiaw transfer but subseqwent transfers are done in a singwe cycwe.[5][6]


The circuitry invowved in dis cache is very compwex due to de simuwtaneous invowvement of pipewining and burst mode. Hence, more time is reqwired initiawwy to set up de "pipewine".

See awso[edit]


  1. ^ "Network dictionary".
  2. ^ "How cache works".
  3. ^ "Cache Bursting". Pcguide.
  4. ^ "Modes of operation".
  5. ^ "Operation".
  6. ^ "Pipewine Burst Cache". Pcguide.

Externaw winks[edit]