Mechanisms and methods for using data access patterns
US7395407B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 14, 2005 |
| Grant date | Jul 1, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 9, 2026 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/6026
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention comprises a data access pattern interface that allows software to specify one or more data access patterns such as stream access patterns, pointer-chasing patterns and producer-consumer patterns. Software detects a data access pattern for a memory region and passes the data access pattern information to hardware via proper data access pattern instructions defined in the data access pattern interface. Hardware maintains the data access pattern information properly when the data access pattern instructions are executed. Hardware can then use the data access pattern information to dynamically detect data access patterns for a memory region throughout the program execution, and voluntarily invoke appropriate memory and cache operations such as pre-fetch, pre-send, acquire-ownership and release-ownership. Further, hardware can provide runtime monitoring information for memory accesses to the memory region, wherein the runtime monitoring information indicates whether the software-provided data access pattern information is accurate.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.