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associativity

associativity

9.8
The number of places in a cache where a memory address can be stored
  • noun
  • /əˌsoʊʃiˈeɪtɪvɪti/
  • Specialized
: asociatividad
  • The performance of a cache system can greatly depend on its associativity, affecting how efficiently it retrieves data.
  • cache associativity
  • size and associativity
  • line size and associativity

Examples

  • And as you keep increasing the associativity, it looks it's going to look more and more like a fully associative cache.

  • The effect on the L1 I-cache is a little more surprising; however, the miss rate is already very high because of the large instruction working set of this workload, and cache-simulation studies show that increasing associativity improves the miss rate only a little for a cache of this size.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Effect of associativity on L1 cache performance.

    Academic text (2000)
  • When an execution unit reads the cache, data from both associativity sets is accessed from the banks, but only data from the predicted set is returned.

    Academic text (2000)
  • The cache size, set associativity, and line size in bytes of the instruction and data caches are given for each of the three configurations.

    Academic text (1994)
  • With this also came increases in the size and associativity of the TLB from a 256-entry two-way to a 1024-entry four-way.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The console sends configuration information to the card, which then updates the FPGA code for each directory to set the emulated cache size, line size, associativity, and other attributes.

    Academic text (2000)
  • The cache size, line size, set associativity, and logical word size (size of accessed data) are input parameters, and several different types are available, e.g., inclusive and noninclusive.

    Academic text (1998)
  • In computer architecture, the associativity of a cache determines how many different locations can store a given address.

  • A higher level of associativity in a memory system allows for increased flexibility in storing multiple addresses.

Synonyms

associability
vsassociativity
8.9

How easily people link ideas or things in their mind

refers to a technical setting for memory that limits address storage locations

Surface Forms

associativity singular

Morphology

associativity = associative (transparent) = associate + ive + ity

The noun 'associativity' is transparently derived from the adjective 'associative' by adding the suffix '-ity', indicating a state or quality.

Etymology

Associativity in computing comes from associate and the old Latin socius 'companion'. Imagine a data item 'making friends' with several places in a cache: associativity tells you how many places an address can be stored, which explains why it changes the memory system's flexibility.