Apparatus and method for selecting instructions for execution based on bank prediction of a multi-bank cache
US7219185B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 22, 2004 |
| Grant date | May 15, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 11, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/0895
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A processor having the capability to dispatch multiple parallel operations, including multiple load operations, accesses a cache which is divided into banks. Each bank supports a limited number of simultaneous read and write access operations. A bank prediction field is associated with each memory access operation. Memory access operations are selected for dispatch so that they are predicted to be non-conflicting. Preferably, the processor automatically maintains a bank predict value based on previous bank accesses, and a confirmation value indicating a degree of confidence in the bank prediction. The confirmation value is preferably an up-or-down counter which is incremented with each correct prediction and decremented with each incorrect prediction.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.