29 September 1997 – Subject To Change
Glossary
–11
LSI
Large-scale integration.
machine check
An operating system action triggered by certain system hardware-detected errors that
can be fatal to system operation. Once triggered, machine check handler software
analyzes the error.
MAF
Miss address file.
main memory
The large memory, external to the microprocessor, used for holding most instruction
code and data. Usually built from cost-effective DRAM memory chips. May be used
in connection with the microprocessor’s internal caches and an optional external
cache.
masked write
A write cycle that only updates a subset of a nominal data block.
MBO
See must be one.
MBZ
See must be zero.
MESI protocol
A cache consistency protocol with full support for multiprocessing. The MESI proto-
col consists of four states that define whether a block is modified (M), exclusive (E),
shared (S), or invalid (I).
MIPS
Millions of instructions per second.
miss
See cache miss.