Prefetcher engine configuration selection with multi-armed bandit

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system includes prefetcher engines to predict next memory access addresses of a memory from which to load data to a cache during execution of a software application, and load the data from the predicted next memory access addresses to the cache during execution of the software application, and a processor to control the prefetcher engines according to configurations of the prefetcher engines selected by a machine learning agent in exploration phases and in exploitation phases during execution of the software application, and execute the machine learning agent to select from a pruned set of configurations to control the prefetcher engines in the exploration phases, perform measurements on the system during execution of the machine learning agent, and execute the machine learning agent to select from the configurations to maximize potential rewards from controlling the prefetcher engines in the exploitation phases based on the performed measurements.