Patent ID: 6952664

Claim:
A method of predicting cache performance, comprising: storing data references applied to an operational data cache in a data processing environment; applying said data references to a cache simulator configured to simultaneously simulate a plurality of caches of different sizes, wherein said cache simulator comprises multiple segments and each said simulated cache comprises one or more of said segments; and generating for each of said plurality of simulated caches an estimate of performance based on said simulation, wherein said generating comprises: for a first simulated cache in said plurality of simulated caches: calculating the number of hits in all segments of said cache simulator that do not comprise part of said first simulated cache, adding the number of said misses of all of said segments to said calculated number of hits to produce an initial estimated miss rate for said first simulated cache, calculating a correction factor to apply to said initial estimated miss rate for said first simulated cache, and multiplying said initial estimated miss rate for said first simulated cache by said correction factor to yield a predicted miss rate for said first simulated cache; wherein each application of one of said data references to said cache simulator causes either a hit in one of said segments or a miss of every said segment.