Xbox360 512KB L2 Cache ???

[sub1zero]

Can somebody explain if there is cause for concern having only of X360's L2 cache ? Why is this thing important anyways ?? Question Question

P.S :: Why the hell did the previous topic get locked ?? :? :x

[Schmeh]

Can somebody explain if there is cause for concern having only of X360's L2 cache ? Why is this thing important anyways ?? Question Question

P.S :: Why the hell did the previous topic get locked ?? :? :x

No, I don't think there is any cause for concern. You are forgetting that the the 512KB L2 Cache is for the PPE. The SPE's each have 256KB of local SRAM.

The XBox 360's 1MB L2 cache is shared between all three cores. This seems small to me for 3 cores, but I could be wrong. Hopefully someone that knows more about how cache effects games could help out.

[High Lander]

Can somebody explain if there is cause for concern having only of X360's L2 cache ? Why is this thing important anyways ?? Question Question

P.S :: Why the hell did the previous topic get locked ?? :? :x

No, I don't think there is any cause for concern. You are forgetting that the the 512KB L2 Cache is for the PPE. The SPE's each have 256KB of local SRAM.

The XBox 360's 1MB L2 cache is shared between all three cores. This seems small to me for 3 cores, but I could be wrong. Hopefully someone that knows more about how cache effects games could help out.

Yes, XBOX360 has 1MB of cache to feed 3 cores. ~330K per core

PS3 has 256K per SPE plus 512K for the PPE
Total PS3 cache is 2.2M

[sub1zero]

What is it for ? I mean what is the use of having an L2 Cache ??

[Schmeh]

What is it for ? I mean what is the use of having an L2 Cache ??

In very general and basic terms Cache is a type of memory. The cpu stores commonly used instructions and data in cache, because unlike RAM it operates at the same clock speed as the CPU, so it is much faster. There are different Levels of cache, hence the L2 or L3 that you see. The level refers to how far away the cache is from the cpu's processing elements. The farther away the cache is the higher latency it has.

I know that in general the more cache you have the better (cache requires alot of transistors and therefore is expensive for the cpu manufactures). But I am not sure at what point adding more cache really does not effect performance or how important larger cache sizes are to games.