Patent · US Active

Efficient multiple-table reference prediction mechanism

US7657729B2 · kind B2 · utility

16Cited by

2References

15Claims

0Family size

Assignee

International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

Wael R. El-Essawy · Austin, US
Ramakrishnan Rajamony · Austin, US
Hazim Shafi · Austin, US
William E. Speight · Austin, US
Lixin Zhang · Shenyang, CN

Key dates

Filing date	Jul 13, 2006
Grant date	Feb 2, 2010
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Apr 25, 2027

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG06F2212/6026
WIPO fieldComputer technology
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for enabling a prefetch engine to detect and support hardware prefetching with different streams in received accesses. Multiple (simple) history tables are provided within (or associated with) the prefetch engine. Each of the multiple tables is utilized to detect different access patterns. The tables are indexed by different parts of the address and are accessed in a preset order to reduce the interference between different patterns. When an address does not fit the patterns of a first table, the address is passed to the next table to be checked for a match of different patterns. In this manner, different patterns may be detected at different tables within a single prefetch engine.

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