Description
We describe the design and single chip implementation of a small data cache memory and associated controllers. The chip can be used as a building block of a multiprocessor system, positioned between the main memory bus and an individual processor. It implements an ownership-based cache consistency protocol. The chip has been designed to be interfaced to the MultiBus system bus and the Motorola 68000 processor. In this paper, we present our cache consistency protocol and its evaluation, and the chip architecture, design decisions, and implementation details.