Method and apparatus for curious and column caching
US6370622B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 19, 1999 |
| Grant date | Apr 9, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 19, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/1045
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Curious caching improves upon cache snooping by allowing a snooping cache to insert data from snooped bus operations that is not currently in the cache and independent of any prior accesses to the associated memory location. In addition, curious caching allows software to specify which data producing bus operations, e.g., reads and writes, result in data being inserted into the cache. This is implemented by specifying “memory regions of curiosity” and insertion and replacement policy actions for those regions. In column caching, the replacement of data can be restricted to particular regions of the cache. By also making the replacement address-dependent, column caching allows different regions of memory to be mapped to different regions of the cache. In a set-associative cache, a replacement policy specifies the particular column(s) of the set-associative cache in which a page of data can be stored. The column specification is made in page table entries in a TLB that translates between virtual and physical addresses. The TLB includes a bit vector, one bit per column, which indicates the columns of the cache that are available for replacement.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.