Patent · US Expired

Apparatus for caching smram in an intel processor based computer system employing system management mode

US5544344A · kind A · utility

17Cited by
2References
18Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateDec 6, 1994
Grant dateAug 6, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 6, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0842
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus and method for caching SMRAM in an Intel.RTM. CPU employing system management mode. A cache for the CPU includes a plurality of data entries and an SMRAM status bit corresponding to each data entry. The SMRAM status bit is set if the data entry holds data in SMRAM, and reset if the data entry does not hold data in SMRAM. The SMRAM status bit distinguishes SMRAM data from system memory data in the cache, thereby eliminating cache coherency problems.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.