Methods and apparatus for a coherence transformer for connecting computer system coherence domains
US5860109A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 1, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jan 12, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 1, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/622
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus for facilitating the sharing of memory blocks, which has local physical addresses at a computer node, between the computer node and an external device. The apparatus includes snooping logic configured for coupling with a common bus of the computer node. The snooping logic is configured to monitor, when coupled to the common bus, memory access requests on the common bus. There is also included a snoop tag array coupled to the snooping logic. The snoop tag array includes tags for tracking all copies of a first plurality of memory blocks of the memory blocks cached by the external device. Further, there is included a protocol transformer logic coupled to the snooping logic for enabling the apparatus, when coupled to the external device, to communicate with the external device using a protocol suitable for communicating with the external device.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.