Evicting appropriate cache line using a replacement policy utilizing belady's optimal algorithm

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for cache replacement. The present invention leverages Belady's optimal replacement algorithm by applying it to past cache accesses to inform future cache replacement decisions. The occupied cache capacity of a cache is tracked at every time interval using an occupancy vector. The cache capacity is retroactively assigned to the cache lines of the cache in order of their reuse, where a cache line is considered to a cache hit if the cache capacity is available at all times between two subsequent accesses. The occupancy vector is updated using a last touch timestamp of a current memory address. A determination is made as to whether the current memory address results in a cache hit or a cache miss based on the updated occupancy vector. The replacement state for the cache line is stored using the results of the determination.