Patent · US Expired

Speed optimal bit ordering in a cache memory

US5802565A · kind A · utility

40Cited by
6References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 29, 1996
Grant dateSep 1, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 29, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0895
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus relating to speed optimal bit ordering in a cache memory. All of the data arrays capable of driving a single output bit are grouped with combinational I/O logic for driving same. The data arrays and combinational I/O logic corresponding to a single output bit can be thought of as a bit slice of a cache. Bit slices are preferably arranged so that predecode bit slices are nearest to the I/O end of the cache. A number of predecode bit slices corresponding to a single instruction or data word are preferably followed by the instruction's predecode data bit slices. Non-predecode data bit slices are arranged so that big/little endien data bit pairs are adjacent to one another, or as close to each other as possible given other bit slice ordering restraints. The arrangement of bit slices in big/little endien pairs yields I/O buses of minimum length. Components of combinational I/O logic are arranged in staggered form, perpendicularly to the I/O datapath of a cache. In this manner, a single control line can latch all of the elements in a logical register.

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