From f31e0e3dca929e6d1fb610a691ea70c854f3d2e8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Malik Aki Burton <mburton35@flubber2.crnch.gatech.edu>
Date: Sat, 1 May 2021 17:13:35 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Added Cache_Subsystem guide

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+# Vortex Cache Sub-System
+
+The Vortex Cache Sub-system has the following main properties:
+
+- High-bandwidth with bank parallelism
+- Snoop protocol to flush data for CPU access
+- Generic design: Dcache, Icache, Shared Memory, L2 cache, L3 cache
+
+### Cache Hierarchy 
+
+![Image of Cache Hierarchy](./Images/cache_hierarchy.png)
+
+- Cache can be configured to be any level in the hierarchy
+- Caches communicate via snooping
+- Cache flush from AFU is passed down the hierarchy​
+
+### VX_cache.v (Top Module)
+
+VX.cache.v is the top module of the cache verilog code located in the `/hw/rtl/cache` directory.
+
+![Image of Vortex Cache](./Images/vortex_cache_top_module.png)
+
+- Configurable (Cache size, number of banks, bank line size, etc.)
+- I/O signals
+  - Core Request
+  - Core Rsp
+  - DRAM Req
+  - DRAM Rsp
+  - Snoop Rsp
+  - Snoop Rsp
+  - Snoop Forwarding Out
+  - Snoop Forwarding In
+- Bank Select
+  - Assigns valid and ready signals for each bank
+- Snoop Forwarder
+- DRAM Request Arbiter
+  - Prepares cache response for communication with DRAM
+- Snoop Response Arbiter
+  - Sends snoop response
+- Core Response Merge
+  - Cache accesses one line at a time. As a result, each request may not come back in the same response. This module tries to recombine the responses by thread ID. 
+
+### VX_bank.v
+
+VX_bank.v is the verilog code that handles cache bank functionality and is located in the `/hw/rtl/cache` directory.
+
+![Image of Vortex Cache Bank](./Images/vortex_bank.png)
+
+- Allows for high throughput​
+- Each bank contains queues to hold requests to the cache​
+- I/O signals
+  - Core request​
+  - Core Response​
+  - DRAM Fill Requests​
+  - DRAM Fill Response​
+  - DRAM WB Requests​
+  - Snp Request​
+  - Snp Response
+- Request Priority: DRAM fill, miss reserve, core request, snoop request​
+- Snoop Request Queue​
+- DRAM Fill Queue​
+- Core Req Arbiter​
+  - Requests to be processed by the bank
+- Tag Data Store​
+  - Registers for valid, dirty, dirtyb, tag, and data​
+  - Length of registers determined by lines in the bank​
+- Tag Data Access:​
+  - I/O: stall, snoop info, force request miss
+  - Writes to cache or sends read response; hit or miss determined here
+  - A missed request goes to the miss reserve if it is not a snoop request or DRAM fill 
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