Adaptive memory access speculation
US7058767B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 28, 2003 |
| Grant date | Jun 6, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 27, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/0215
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and system for speculatively pre-fetching data from a memory. A memory controller on a data bus “snoops” data requests put on the data bus by a bus control logic. Based on information in the header of the data request, such as transaction type, tag, transaction size, etc., a speculative pre-fetch is made to read data from the memory associated with the memory controller. If the speculative fetch turns out to be correct, then the memory controller makes an assumption that the pre-fetch was too conservative (non-speculative), and a pre-fetch for a next data request is performed at an earlier more speculative time. If the speculative fetch turns out to be incorrect, then the memory controller makes an assumption that the pre-fetch was too speculative (made early), and a pre-fetch for a next data request is performed at a later less speculative time.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.