Microprocessor with improved data stream prefetching

Details Microprocessor with improved data stream prefetching Microprocessor with improved data stream prefetching

2006-08-11

2010-02-16

Song, Jasmine (Department: 2189)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory

Storage accessing and control

Hierarchical memories

C711S117000, C712S207000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07664920

ABSTRACT:
A microprocessor includes a hierarchical memory subsystem, an instruction decoder, and a stream prefetch unit. The decoder decodes an instruction that specifies a locality characteristic parameter. In one embodiment, the parameter specifies a relative urgency with which a data stream specified by the instruction is needed rather than specifying exactly which of the cache memories in the hierarchy to prefetch the data stream into. The prefetch unit selects one of the cache memory levels in the hierarchy for prefetching the data stream into based on the memory subsystem configuration and on the relative urgency. In another embodiment, the prefetch unit instructs the memory subsystem to mark the prefetched cache line for early, late, or normal eviction according to its cache line replacement policy based on the parameter value.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5375216 (1994-12-01), Moyer et al.
patent: 5732242 (1998-03-01), Mowry
patent: 5835967 (1998-11-01), McMahan
patent: 5948095 (1999-09-01), Arora et al.
patent: 6119222 (2000-09-01), Shiell et al.
patent: 6128703 (2000-10-01), Bourekas et al.
patent: 6202130 (2001-03-01), Scales et al.
patent: 6212603 (2001-04-01), McInerney et al.
patent: 6240488 (2001-05-01), Mowry
patent: 6401192 (2002-06-01), Schroter et al.
patent: 6434649 (2002-08-01), Baker et al.
patent: 6490658 (2002-12-01), Ahmed et al.
patent: 6578130 (2003-06-01), Barrick et al.
patent: 6775765 (2004-08-01), Lee et al.
patent: 6785772 (2004-08-01), Venkumahanti et al.
patent: 6832280 (2004-12-01), Malik et al.
patent: 6854048 (2005-02-01), Dice
patent: 6981099 (2005-12-01), Paulraj et al.
patent: 6985999 (2006-01-01), Henry et al.
patent: 7177985 (2007-02-01), Diefendorff
patent: 7194582 (2007-03-01), Diefendorff et al.
patent: 2002/0087802 (2002-07-01), Al-Dajani et al.
patent: 2003/0018875 (2003-01-01), Henry et al.
patent: 2004/0186960 (2004-09-01), Poggio
patent: 2007/0043907 (2007-02-01), Diefendorff
patent: 2007/0043909 (2007-02-01), Diefendorff
patent: 2007/0055824 (2007-03-01), Diefendorff et al.
patent: 2007/0101104 (2007-05-01), Diefendorff
patent: 2007/0101105 (2007-05-01), Diefendorff
McKee, Sally A. et al. “Smarter Memory: Improving Bandwidth For Streamed References.”ComputerIEEE 1998.
VanderWiel, Steven P., David J. Lilja. “When Caches Aren't Enough: Data Prefetching Techniques.”ComputerIEEE 1997.
“Instruction Set Reference.”IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual. vol. 2. 2001. pp. 3-600 through 3-601.
Diefendorff, Keith, Michael Allen. “Organization of the Motorola 88110 Superscalar Risc Microprocessor.”IEEE Micro1992.
Diefendorff, Keith, Rich Oehler, Ron Hochsprung. “Evolution of the PowerPC Architecture.”IEEE Micro1994.
Ball, Stuart, Robert Probin. “An Overview of Altivec on the PowerPC.” 1998 Lightsoft.
Altivec Technology Programming Environments Manual. Digital DNA from Motorola. Feb. 2002.
Altivec. “The Caches: Memory and Alignment.” Jun. 3, 2003.
Diefendorff, Keith et al. “Altivec Extension to PowerPC Accelerates Media Processing.”IEEE Micro2000.
Ollmann, Ian. “Altivec (a.k.a. Velocity Engine).” Altivec Tutorial. 2001.
Stink, P. et al.,A Combined Hardware/Software Solution for Stream Prefetching in Multimedia Applications, Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 11 pages, 1998.
VanderWiel, S. And Lilja, D.J.,A Survey of Data Prefetching Techniques, Technical Report No. HPPC-96-05, University of Minnesota, 27 pages, Oct. 1996.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Microprocessor with improved data stream prefetching does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Microprocessor with improved data stream prefetching, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Microprocessor with improved data stream prefetching will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-4200957