Method of dynamically controlling cache size

US7127560B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Erwin B. Cohen · Durham, US
• Thomas E. Cook · South Burlington, US
• Ian R. Govett · South Burlington, US
• Paul D. Kartschoke · Williston, US
• Stephen V. Kosonocky · Fort Collins, US
• Peter A. Sandon · South Burlington, US
• Keith R. Williams · South Burlington, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 14, 2003
• Grant date: Oct 24, 2006
• Expiry date: Apr 13, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S707/99952
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A power saving cache and a method of operating a power saving cache. The power saving cache includes circuitry to dynamically reduce the logical size of the cache in order to save power. Preferably, a method is used to determine optimal cache size for balancing power and performance, using a variety of combinable hardware and software techniques. Also, in a preferred embodiment, steps are used for maintaining coherency during cache resizing, including the handling of modified (“dirty”) data in the cache, and steps are provided for partitioning a cache in one of several way to provide an appropriate configuration and granularity when resizing.