Patent · US Expired

Flexible event monitoring counters in multi-node processor systems and process of operating the same

US6347362B1 · kind B1 · utility

72Cited by
5References
30Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 29, 1998
Grant dateFeb 12, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 29, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2201/88
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A flexible event monitoring counter apparatus and process are provided for a processor system including a plurality of nodes, each node having a processor and a portion of a total main memory of the processor system. One example of such a processor system is a Non-Uniform-Memory-Architecture (NUMA) system. In order to reduce the total number of counters necessary, the counter structure will track certain ones of a type of event which occur in the processor system, determined in accordance with a predetermined standard to be most interesting, while discarding other ones of the same type of event determined by the standard to be less interesting. In accordance with one embodiment, the type of event which is tracked or discarded can be page accesses to pages of the total main memory. The standard of most interesting events can be based on the pages which receive the most requests for remote access from a node other than the node where the requested page is located. The information regarding the most interesting events can be used, if desired, to make decisions regarding migration and/or replication of pages between the different nodes.

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