Victim cache line selection

A set-associative cache memory comprising:

• a cache array including a plurality of congruence classes, wherein each of the plurality of congruence classes includes a plurality of members each belonging to a respective one of a plurality of ways;
• a cache directory of contents of the cache array;
• a history data structure that records an eviction history of an immediately previous N ways from which cache lines have been evicted, wherein N is an integer greater than 1, wherein the eviction history records an ordering of evictions from an immediately previous N ways from which cache lines have been evicted, and wherein the ordering specifies ways belonging to different congruence classes among a group of multiple congruence classes including the selected congruence class;
• replacement logic configured to perform:
• in response to receipt of a memory access request specifying a target address, selecting a selected congruence class among the plurality of congruence classes based on the target address,
• removing, as a candidate for selection, multiple members of the selected congruence class based on the history recorded in the history data structure;
• selecting a selected member from among remaining members of the selected congruence class that remain as candidates after the removing;
• and
• evicting a victim cache line cached in the selected member of the selected congruence class.

A data processing system, comprising:

• a processor core;
• and
• a set-associative cache memory coupled to the processor core, said set-associative cache memory including:
• a cache array including a plurality of congruence classes, wherein each of the plurality of congruence classes includes a plurality of members each belonging to a respective one of a plurality of ways, wherein N is an integer greater than 1;
• a cache directory of contents of the cache array;
• a history data structure that records an eviction history of an immediately previous N ways from which cache lines have been evicted, wherein the eviction history records an ordering of evictions from an immediately previous N ways from which cache lines have been evicted, and wherein the ordering specifies ways belonging to different congruence classes among a group of multiple congruence classes including the selected congruence class;
• replacement logic configured to perform:
• in response to receipt of a memory access request specifying a target address, selecting a selected congruence class among the plurality of congruence classes based on the target address,
• removing, as a candidate for selection, multiple member of the selected congruence class based on the history recorded in the history data structure;
• selecting a selected member from among remaining members of the selected congruence class that remain as candidates after the removing;
• and
• evicting a victim cache line cached in the selected member of the selected congruence class.