Patent ID: 7107400

Claim:
An apparatus for evaluating a projected cache size, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of cache entries organized in a cache list, the cache list comprising a plurality of actual cache entries wherein the actual cache entries of the cache list are employed by an operational cache to access cached data, an actual cache region pointer that indicates the least recently used actual cache entry for an actual cache size, a plurality of projected cache entries wherein the plurality of actual cache entries is a subset of the plurality of projected cache entries, and a projected cache region pointer that indicates the least recently used projected cache entry for a projected cache size; an actual cache management module configured to manage the plurality of actual cache entries associated with the actual cache size; a projected cache management module configured to manage the plurality of projected cache entries associated with the projected cache size; an actual performance module configured to calculate an actual cache performance parameter associated with the actual cache size; and a projected performance module configured to calculate a projected cache performance parameter associated with the projected cache size.