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This item is from the PC Hardware FAQ, by Willie Lim and Ralph Valentino with numerous contributions by others. (v1.25).

2.32 What about an n-way set associative cache, isn't it better?

[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]

At the high end of the mb market, caches are available with more than one set. In these caches, the data store is broken into two or four parts, or sets, with a separate tag for each. On a miss, clever algorithms (such as Least Recently Used) can be used to pick which set will be filled, because each set has a candidate location. The result is a higher hit rate than a direct mapped (single set) cache the same size can offer.

The primary cache on the 486 is four-way set associative.

 

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