Snoop filter for filtering snoop requests
US7373462B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 29, 2005 |
| Grant date | May 13, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 9, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY02D10/00
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for supporting cache coherency in a multiprocessor computing environment having multiple processing units, each processing unit having one or more local cache memories associated and operatively connected therewith. The method comprises providing a snoop filter device associated with each processing unit, each snoop filter device having a plurality of dedicated input ports for receiving snoop requests from dedicated memory writing sources in the multiprocessor computing environment. Each snoop filter device includes a plurality of parallel operating port snoop filters in correspondence with the plurality of dedicated input ports, each port snoop filter implementing one or more parallel operating sub-filter elements that are adapted to concurrently filter snoop requests received from respective dedicated memory writing sources and forward a subset of those requests to its associated processing unit.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.