Simulated Cache Bookkeeping with LLVM

Abstract: This paper presents and examines a method for profiling the data cache usage of a program. By simulating the bookkeeping of a cache we can measure the impact of each memory access. This method can be used to guide optimizations or show bottlenecks. The method is mostly deterministic and independent of the external system. We compare the results of the method with measured CPU-events and find a correlation, indicating the method to be useful for profiling data cache usage.