Patent · US Expired

Method and system for speculatively invalidating lines in a cache

US6725337B1 · kind B1 · utility

60Cited by
7References
44Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 16, 2001
Grant dateApr 20, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 17, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2212/507
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A cache controller configured to speculatively invalidate a cache line may respond to an invalidating request or instruction immediately instead of waiting for error checking to complete. In case the error checking determines that the invalidation is erroneous and thus should not be performed, the cache controller protects the speculatively invalidated cache line from modification until error checking is complete. This way, if the invalidation is later found to be erroneous, the speculative invalidation can be reversed. If error checking completes without detecting any errors, the speculative invalidation becomes non-speculative.

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