Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Hierarchical memories
Reexamination Certificate
2011-03-01
2011-03-01
Rutz, Jared I (Department: 2187)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Hierarchical memories
C711S135000, C710S014000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07899990
ABSTRACT:
Power conservation via DRAM access reduction is provided by a buffer/mini-cache selectively operable in a normal mode and a buffer mode. In the buffer mode, entered when CPUs begin operating in low-power states, non-cacheable accesses (such as generated by a DMA device) matching specified physical address ranges, or having specific characteristics of the accesses themselves, are processed by the buffer/mini-cache, instead of by a memory controller and DRAM. The buffer/mini-cache processing includes allocating lines when references miss, and returning cached data from the buffer/mini-cache when references hit. Lines are replaced in the buffer/mini-cache according to one of a plurality of replacement policies, including ceasing replacement when there are no available free lines. In the normal mode, entered when CPUs begin operating in high-power states, the buffer/mini-cache operates akin to a conventional cache and non-cacheable accesses are not processed therein.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3938097 (1976-02-01), Niguette, III
patent: 4219875 (1980-08-01), Templeton
patent: 5493668 (1996-02-01), Elko et al.
patent: 5559952 (1996-09-01), Fujimoto
patent: 5809555 (1998-09-01), Hobson
patent: 6141737 (2000-10-01), Krantz et al.
patent: 6219745 (2001-04-01), Strongin et al.
patent: 6317744 (2001-11-01), Elko et al.
patent: 6397308 (2002-05-01), Ofek et al.
patent: 6438661 (2002-08-01), Beardsley et al.
patent: 6657634 (2003-12-01), Sinclair et al.
patent: 6665775 (2003-12-01), Maiyuran et al.
patent: 6697916 (2004-02-01), Lasserre et al.
patent: 6721943 (2004-04-01), Krishnaiyer et al.
patent: 6745293 (2004-06-01), Lasserre et al.
patent: 6801208 (2004-10-01), Keshava et al.
patent: 6816750 (2004-11-01), Klaas
patent: 6845426 (2005-01-01), Kuwata
patent: 6857058 (2005-02-01), Gurumoorthy et al.
patent: 6891543 (2005-05-01), Wyatt
patent: 6963987 (2005-11-01), Emons
patent: 6978357 (2005-12-01), Hacking et al.
patent: 7035990 (2006-04-01), Muhlbauer
patent: 7058839 (2006-06-01), Imming
patent: 7139933 (2006-11-01), Hsu et al.
patent: 7516274 (2007-05-01), Moll et al.
patent: 7412570 (2007-06-01), Moll et al.
patent: 7266641 (2007-09-01), Kamei et al.
patent: 7268787 (2007-09-01), Hong et al.
patent: 7444491 (2008-10-01), Steinbusch
patent: 7484065 (2009-01-01), Pomaranski et al.
patent: 7523284 (2009-04-01), Wilson
patent: 7549034 (2009-06-01), Foster, Sr. et al.
patent: 7681057 (2010-03-01), Payne
patent: 2001/0014934 (2001-08-01), Toba
patent: 2002/0116576 (2002-08-01), Keshava et al.
patent: 2003/0033386 (2003-02-01), Dahlen et al.
patent: 2003/0044325 (2003-03-01), Edwards et al.
patent: 2003/0079088 (2003-04-01), Malik
patent: 2003/0084251 (2003-05-01), Gaither et al.
patent: 2003/0115423 (2003-06-01), Chang
patent: 2003/0163742 (2003-08-01), Lam
patent: 2003/0196045 (2003-10-01), Matsubara et al.
patent: 2003/0233520 (2003-12-01), Clark et al.
patent: 2004/0006716 (2004-01-01), Schuckle et al.
patent: 2004/0128466 (2004-07-01), Kadohiro
patent: 2004/0205301 (2004-10-01), Hara et al.
patent: 2004/0215883 (2004-10-01), Bamford et al.
patent: 2004/0225858 (2004-11-01), Brueggen
patent: 2005/0005073 (2005-01-01), Pruvost et al.
patent: 2005/0044325 (2005-02-01), Rowlands et al.
patent: 2005/0044448 (2005-02-01), Verdun
patent: 2005/0055512 (2005-03-01), Kishi
patent: 2005/0097277 (2005-05-01), Maiyuran et al.
patent: 2005/0108496 (2005-05-01), Elnozahy et al.
patent: 2005/0114557 (2005-05-01), Arai et al.
patent: 2005/0114559 (2005-05-01), Miller
patent: 2005/0193176 (2005-09-01), Edirisooriya et al.
patent: 2006/0015683 (2006-01-01), Ashmore et al.
patent: 2006/0047884 (2006-03-01), Tran et al.
patent: 2006/0095806 (2006-05-01), Dai et al.
patent: 2006/0143396 (2006-06-01), Cabot
patent: 2006/0149915 (2006-07-01), Maly
patent: 2006/0218352 (2006-09-01), Shannon et al.
patent: 2006/0268592 (2006-11-01), Mohammad et al.
patent: 2007/0011421 (2007-01-01), Keller et al.
patent: 2007/0016729 (2007-01-01), Correale et al.
patent: 2007/0033332 (2007-02-01), Sinclair et al.
patent: 2007/0038850 (2007-02-01), Matthews et al.
patent: 2007/0061511 (2007-03-01), Faber
patent: 2007/0067578 (2007-03-01), Kurichiyath
patent: 2007/0094450 (2007-04-01), VanderWiel
patent: 2007/0233964 (2007-10-01), Robinson
patent: 2007/0288783 (2007-12-01), Ogasawara et al.
patent: 2008/0294846 (2008-11-01), Bali et al.
patent: 06195265 (1994-07-01), None
patent: 495064 (2002-07-01), None
patent: 591374 (2004-06-01), None
patent: 0139164 (2001-05-01), None
Handy, J., The Cache Memory Book, Second Edition, Academic Press, Inc., 1998, pp. 2-5 and 80-87.
Mostinski, R. and Yoder, D., 2D/3D Graphics Support in the i.MX31 and i.MX31L Multimedia Applications Processors, Freescale Semiconductor, Jun. 2005, pp. 1-12.
Pan, H. and Asanovic, K., Heads and Tails: A Variable-Length Instruction Format Supporting Parallel Fetch and Decode, Cases '01, Nov. 16-17, 2001, pp. 1-8.
Hennessy, J. L. and Patterson, D. A., Computer Organization and Design, The Hardware/Software Interface, Second Edition, 1998, pp. 19 and B-31.
Speight, E., Shafi, H., Zhang, L., Rajamony, R., “Adaptive Mechanisms and Policies for Managing Cache Hierarchies in Chip Multiprocessors”, Novel Systems Architecture Group, ISCA'05, May 2005, 11 pages.
Hanlon, A., “Content-Addressable and Associative Memory Systems”, IEEE, May 2, 1966, 13 pages.
Sartor, J., Venkiteswaran, S., McKinley, K., Wang, Z., “Cooperative Caching with Keep-Me and Evict-Me”, The Computer Society, Jan. 2005, 12 pages.
AGP 3.0 Specification, Intel, Sep. 2002.
Examiner's First Office Action on Patent Application No. 2006800507749, dated Feb. 5, 2010, 4 pages.
Chinese Office Action issued for related application No. 200680050850.6, mailed Mar. 8, 2010, 2 pages.
U.S. Notice of Allowance for U.S. Appl. No. 11/559,192, mailed on Jun. 21, 2010 (16 pages).
U.S. Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,217, mailed on Apr. 5, 2010 (47 pages).
U.S. Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/559,133, mailed on Mar. 5, 2010 (14 pages).
U.S. Notice of Allowance for U.S. Appl. No. 11/559,133, mailed on Jul. 2, 2010 (16 pages).
U. S. Office Action issued for related U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,218, dated Feb. 4, 2010.
U. S. Office Action issued for related U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,985, dated Mar. 1, 2010.
U. S. Office Action issued for related U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,973, dated Mar. 1, 2010.
Examination Report from the Taiwan Intellectual Office issued for related patent application No. 095142014, dated May 26, 2010., and English translation thereof, 15 pages.
Lebeck, Alvin. R., et al. “Power Aware Page Allocation”, ACM 2000, Nov. 12-15, 2000, 12 pages.
U.S. Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,973, mailed on May 14, 2010 (14 pages).
U.S. Notice of Allowance for U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,985, mailed on Aug. 23, 2010 (4 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,218, dated Sep. 3, 2009, (23 pages).
U. S. Office Action issued for related U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,985, dated Sep. 3, 2009 (51 pages).
Notice of Allowance in U.S. Appl. No. 11/351,058 dated Apr. 3, 2008, (9 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/351,070 dated Feb. 7, 2008, (19 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/351,070 dated Nov. 7, 2008 , (14 pages).
Notice of Allowance in U.S. Appl. No. 11/351,070 dated Jan. 12, 2009, (7 pages).
U.S. Office Action for U.S. Appl. No. 11/559,069, mailed on Sep. 13, 2010 (15 pages).
U.S. Notice of Allowance for U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,973, mailed on Oct. 6, 2010 (8 pages).
Notice of Allowance in U.S. Appl. No. 11/559,133 dated Sep. 15, 2010, (8 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/559,192, dated Mar. 5, 2010, (14 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,216, dated Feb. 3, 2010, (16 pages).
Notice of Allowance in U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,973 dated Oct. 6, 2010, (8 pages).
Notice of Allowance in U.S. Appl. No. 11/751,985 dated Jun. 28, 2010, (6 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,218, dated Jun. 9, 2010, (25 pages).
Office Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,217, dated Oct. 27, 2009, (35 pages).
Office Action in U.S. Appl. No. 11/759,217, dated May 11, 201
Cheng Yu Qing
Glaskowsky Peter N.
Moll Laurent R.
Song Seungyoon Peter
Oracle America Inc.
Osha • Liang LLP
Rutz Jared I
LandOfFree
Power conservation via DRAM access does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Power conservation via DRAM access, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Power conservation via DRAM access will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2766889