Cache Lab #

Note: This lab must be run on a 64-bit x86-64 system.

Contents #

• Files downloaded from CS:APP website as cachelab-handout.tar, and listed below in the original README contents

Lab Assignment Write-Up #

csapp.cs.cmu.edu/3e/cachelab.pdf.

This write-up is pretty helpful for even those doing self-study. Read through it to learn how to approach this lab’s problem.

Original README.md #

This section is copied from csapp.cs.cmu.edu/3e/README-cachelab. It was modified only to conform to standard Markdown formatting.

It is not particularly useful for people doing self-study, but is reproduced here anyway.

#####################################################################
# CS:APP Cache Lab
# Directions to Instructors
#
# Copyright (c) 2013, R. Bryant and D. O'Hallaron, All rights reserved.
######################################################################

This directory contains the files that you will need to run the CS:APP cache lab, which develops the student’s understanding of caches.

1. Overview #

In this lab, the student works on two C files called csim.c and trans.c. There are two parts: Part (a) involves implementing a cache simulator in csim.c. Part (b) involves writing a function that computes the transpose of a given matrix in trans.c, with the goal of minimizing the number misses on a simulated cache.

Each time a student with login “foo” compiles their work, the Makefile automatically generates a handin file, called foo-handin.tar, that contains the csim.c and trans.c file. Students hand this tar file in to the instructor.

The driver program (driver.py) evaluates the correctness of the cache simulator in csim.c, and the performance and correctness of the transpose functions in trans.c. See the writeup for details.

Requirements:

• The lab must be done on a 64-bit x86-64 system.
• The driver requires a version of Valgrind (http://valgrind.org) that supports the “–tool=lackey” option.

2. Files #

• Makefile Builds the entire lab
• README This file
• grade/ Autograding scripts for the instructor
• src/ Source code of this lab
• cachelab-handout/ Handout directory that goes to the students. This directory is completely generated from files in the src directory Never put any hard state in this directory.
• cachelab-handout.tar Tar file of handout directory that goes out to the students.
• writeup/ Latex writeup about the lab. Modify to reflect your environment.

3. Building the Lab #

To build the default version of the lab, modify the Latex lab writeup in ./writeup/cachelab.tex for your environment. Then type the following in the current directory:

    unix> make clean
    unix> make

This will build the cachelab-handout/ directory and its cachelab-handout.tar archive that you can handout to students. The command:

unix> make dist DEST=<DIR>

will copy the tarfile and copies of the writeup to directory