The new shared L3 cache featured in AMD “Barcelona” processors is considered by many platform level software developers to be one of the two most important features of the platform. These top two features — quad-core and L3 cache — together mean that the performance characteristics of applications that you previously profiled (on the original x86-64 family of AMD processors) will be different due to the enhanced microarchitecture and additional processor resources available. This exposes new opportunities for performance improvement if a new performance study is done. For such a performance study, consider the AMD CodeAnalyst Performance Analyzer for Windows® and Linux® that has been specifically tuned for AMD “Barcelona” (Family 10h) processors, including Third-Generation AMD Opteron™ processors (i.e. reads and interprets AMD “Barcelona” processor hardware event counters). Check out the article Barcelona’s Innovative Architecture Is Driven by a New Shared Cache and Chapter 5 of the Software Optimization Guide for AMD Family 10h Processors for more details on what this new L3 cache means for software developers.
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