The part on how they reverse engineered the cache directory is especially interesting. Consider this, they build an eviction algorithm [1] that just worked. An

The part on how they reverse engineered the cache directory is especially interesting. Consider this, they build an eviction algorithm [1] that just worked. And by varying it on different threads you basically get to understand (a) it is inclusive for private and shared cache lines and (b) the cache replacement policies (private gets kicked out first). I find it quite cool since eviction algorithms are normally used for evict + reload attacks, but no! They can also be used for reverse engineering cache behaviors in CPUs :D [1] an eviction algorithm is an algorithm designed to kick out all the other entries in the cache (of a particular cache set that is).