Patent · US Expired

Prefetch miss indicator for cache coherence directory misses on external caches

US7395375B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
9References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 8, 2004
Grant dateJul 1, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 12, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2212/507
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system, method and article of manufacture for reducing latencies associated with cache coherence directory misses on external caches in a shared distributed memory data processing system. A cache coherence directory is evaluated for possible prefetching of a directory entry into a directory cache. A prefetch miss indicator is set if the prefetch evaluation results in a directory miss. The prefetch miss indicator is consulted during subsequent processing of a memory block request corresponding to the directory entry. An accelerated snoop response action is taken if the prefetch miss indicator is set. The latency of a second lookup into the cache coherence directory, which would otherwise be required, is thereby avoided.

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