Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Derek R Hower

Shuai Che

Blake A Hechtman

Gabriel H Loh

Yasuko Eckert

Bradford Michael Beckmann

Mark Donald Hill

Steven Karl Reinhardt

David Allen Wood

Benedict R Gaster

Marc S Orr

A processing system having a multilevel cache hierarchy employs techniques for repurposing dead cache blocks so as to use otherwise wasted space in a cache hierarchy employing a write-back scheme. For a cache line containing invalid data with a valid tag, the valid tag is maintained for cache coherence purposes or otherwise, resulting in a valid tag for a dead cache block. A cache controller repurposes the dead cache block by storing any of a variety of new data at the dead cache block, while storing the new tag in a tag entry of a dead block tag way with an identifier indicating the location of the new data.

System and method for repurposing dead cache blocks

A processor prunes state information based on information provided by software, thereby reducing the amount of state information to be stored prior to the processor entering a low-power state. The software, such as an operating system or application program executing at the processor, indicates one or more registers of the processor as storing data that is no longer useful. When preparing to enter the low-power state, the processor omits the indicated registers from the state information stored to memory.

Pruning of low power state information for a processor

A method and a system for block scheduling are disclosed. The method includes retrieving an original block ID, determining a corresponding new block ID from a mapping, executing a new block corresponding to the new block ID, and repeating the retrieving, determining, and executing for each original block ID. The system includes a program memory configured to store multi-block computer programs, an identifier memory configured to store block identifiers (ID's), management hardware configured to retrieve an original block ID from the program memory, scheduling hardware configured to receive the original block ID from the management hardware and determine a new block ID corresponding to the original block ID using a stored mapping, and processing hardware configured to receive the new block ID from the scheduling hardware and execute a new block corresponding to the new block ID.

Method and system for block scheduling control in a processor by remapping

Sharing tasks among compute units in a processor can increase the efficiency of the processor. When a compute unit does not have a task in its task memory to perform, donating tasks from other compute units can prevent the compute unit from being idle while there is task in other parts of the processor. It is desirable to share tasks among compute units that are within defined scopes of the processor. Compute units may share tasks by allowing other compute units to access their private memory, or by donating tasks to a shared memory.

Runtime for automatically load-balancing and synchronizing heterogeneous computer systems with scoped synchronization

A method, computer program product, and system is described that determines the correctness of using memory operations in a computing device with heterogeneous computer components. Embodiments include an optimizer based on the characteristics of a Sequential Consistency for Heterogeneous-Race-Free (SC for HRF) model that analyzes a program and determines the correctness of the ordering of events in the program. HRF models include combinations of the properties: scope order, scope inclusion, and scope transitivity. The optimizer can determine when a program is heterogeneous-race-free in accordance with an SC for HRF memory consistency model. For example, the optimizer can analyze a portion of program code, respect the properties of the SC for HRF model, and determine whether a value produced by a store memory event will be a candidate for a value observed by a load memory event. In addition, the optimizer can determine whether reordering of events is possible.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Derek R Hower