Patent · US Expired

Managing ownership of a full cache line using a store-create operation

US6901482B2 · kind B2 · utility

25Cited by
7References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 25, 2002
Grant dateMay 31, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 25, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L47/822
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system includes a plurality of processing clusters and a snoop controller. A first processing cluster in the plurality of processing clusters includes a first tier cache memory coupled to a second tier cache memory. The system employs a store-create operation to obtain sole ownership of a full cache line memory location for the first processing cluster, without retrieving the memory location from other processing clusters. The system issues the store-create operation for the memory location to the first tier cache. The first tier cache forwards a memory request including the store-create operation command to the second tier cache. The second tier cache determines whether the second tier cache has sole ownership of the memory location. If the second tier cache does not have sole ownership of the memory location, ownership of the memory location is relinquished by the other processing clusters with any ownership of the memory location.

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