System and method for performing hardware prefetch tablewalks having lowest tablewalk priority
US9542332B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 13, 2014 |
| Grant date | Jan 10, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 10, 2035 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/654
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A hardware prefetch tablewalk system for a microprocessor including a tablewalk engine that is configured to perform hardware prefetch tablewalk operations without blocking software-based tablewalk operations. Tablewalk requests include a priority value, in which the tablewalk engine is configured to compare priorities of requests in which a higher priority request may terminate a current tablewalk operation. Hardware prefetch tablewalk requests having the lowest possible priority so that they do not bump higher priority tablewalk operations and are bumped by higher priority tablewalk requests. The priority values may be in the form of age values indicative of relative ages of operations being performed. The microprocessor may include a hardware prefetch engine that performs boundless hardware prefetch pattern detection that is not limited by page boundaries to provide the hardware prefetch tablewalk requests.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.