Patent · US Active

Microprocessor with repeat prefetch indirect instruction

US8364902B2 · kind B2 · utility

23Cited by
9References
50Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 15, 2009
Grant dateJan 29, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 2, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2212/6028
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A microprocessor includes an instruction decoder for decoding a repeat prefetch indirect instruction that includes address operands used to calculate an address of a first entry in a prefetch table having a plurality of entries, each including a prefetch address. The repeat prefetch indirect instruction also includes a count specifying a number of cache lines to be prefetched. The memory address of each of the cache lines is specified by the prefetch address in one of the entries in the prefetch table. A count register, initially loaded with the count specified in the prefetch instruction, stores a remaining count of the cache lines to be prefetched. Control logic fetches the prefetch addresses of the cache lines from the table into the microprocessor and prefetches the cache lines from the system memory into a cache memory of the microprocessor using the count register and the prefetch addresses fetched from the table.

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