Texas Instruments Corporation

Sandbridge Technologies, Inc.

Kai Chirca

Timothy David Anderson

Matthew D Pierson

Joseph R Zbiciak

Daniel Brad Wu

Abhijeet Ashok Chachad

David Matthew Thompson

Duc Quang Bui

Naveen Bhoria

Alan Davis

Joseph Raymond Michael Zbiciak

Todd T Hahn

Jonathan (Son) Hung Tran

David E Smith

Paul Daniel Gauvreau

Ramakrishnan Venkatasubramanian

Arthur John Redfern

David Edward Smith, Jr

Chenchi Luo

Amitabh Menon

Zhenhua Yu

Mujibur Rahman

Charles Lance Fuoco

Amritpal Singh Mundra

Brian Jason Karguth

Son Hung Tran

Joseph R M Zbiciak

Donald Edward Steiss

C John Glossner

Techniques for loading data, comprising receiving a memory management command to perform a memory management operation to load data into the cache memory before execution of an instruction that requests the data, formatting the memory management command into one or more instruction for a cache controller associated with the cache memory, and outputting an instruction to the cache controller to load the data into the cache memory based on the memory management command.

Multi-processor bridge with cache allocate awareness

Disclosed embodiments relate to a security firewall having a security hierarchy including: secure master (SM); secure guest (SG); and non-secure (NS). There is one secure master and n secure guests. The firewall includes one secure region for secure master and one secure region for secure guests. The SM region only allows access from the secure master and the SG region allows accesses from any secure transaction. Finally, the non-secure region can be implemented two ways. In a first option, non-secure regions may be accessed only upon non-secure transactions. In a second option, non-secure regions may be accessed any processing core. In this second option, the access is downgraded to a non-secure access if the security identity is secure master or secure guest. If the two security levels are not needed the secure master can unlock the SM region to allow any secure guest access to the SM region.

Secure master and secure guest endpoint security firewall

Techniques for maintaining cache coherency comprising storing data blocks associated with a main process in a cache line of a main cache memory, storing a first local copy of the data blocks in a first local cache memory of a first processor, storing a second local copy of the set of data blocks in a second local cache memory of a second processor executing a first child process of the main process to generate first output data, writing the first output data to the first data block of the first local copy as a write through, writing the first output data to the first data block of the main cache memory as a part of the write through, transmitting an invalidate request to the second local cache memory, marking the second local copy of the set of data blocks as delayed, and transmitting an acknowledgment to the invalidate request.

Delayed snoop for improved multi-process false sharing parallel thread performance

An integrated circuit comprising instruction processing circuitry for processing a plurality of program instructions and instruction prediction circuitry. The instruction prediction circuitry comprises circuitry for detecting successive occurrences of a same program loop sequence of program instructions. The instruction prediction circuitry also comprises circuitry for predicting a number of iterations of the same program loop sequence of program instructions, in response to detecting, by the circuitry for detecting, that a second occurrence of the same program loop sequence of program instructions comprises a same number of iterations as a first occurrence of the same program loop sequence of program instructions.

Branch prediction using loop iteration count

A method for performing a fundamental computational primitive in a device is provided, where the device includes a processor and a matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA). The method includes configuring a streaming engine in the device to stream data for the fundamental computational primitive from memory, configuring the MMA to format the data, and executing the fundamental computational primitive by the device.

Computational primitives using a matrix multiplication accelerator

A device includes a data path, a first interface configured to receive a first memory access request from a first peripheral device, and a second interface configured to receive a second memory access request from a second peripheral device. The device further includes an arbiter circuit configured to determine a first destination device connected to the data path and associated with the first memory access request and a first credit threshold corresponding to the first memory access request. The arbiter circuit is further configured to determine a second destination device connected to the data path and associated with the second memory access request and a second credit threshold corresponding to the second memory access request. The arbiter circuit is configured to arbitrate access to the data path by the first memory access request and the second memory access request based on the first credit threshold and the second credit threshold.

Credit aware central arbitration for multi-endpoint, multi-core system

Techniques for accessing memory by a memory controller, comprising receiving, by the memory controller, a memory management command to perform a memory management operation at a virtual memory address, translating the virtual memory address to a physical memory address, wherein the physical memory address comprises an address within a cache memory, and outputting an instruction to the cache memory based on the memory management command and the physical memory address.

Multicore shared cache operation engine

A method for compiling and executing a nested loop includes initializing a nested loop controller with an outer loop count value and an inner loop count value. The nested loop controller includes a predicate FIFO. The method also includes coalescing the nested loop and, during execution of the coalesced nested loop, causing the nested loop controller to populate the predicate FIFO and executing a get predicate instruction having an offset value, where the get predicate returns a value from the predicate FIFO specified by the offset value. The method further includes predicating an outer loop instruction on the returned value from the predicate FIFO.

Nested loop control

A prefetch unit includes multiple memories; and a memory controller coupled to the multiple memories. The memory controller includes a prefetch stream filter and a prefetch buffer. The prefetch stream filter includes a first set of address slots and a set of direction prediction fields, each of which is associated with a respective one of the address slots of the first set of address slots. The prefetch buffer includes a set of buffer slots, each slot of the set of buffer slots including an address field, a direction prediction field, a data pending field, a data valid field, and a set of sub-slots configured to store data, wherein each address field of each slot of the set of buffer slots is configured to store at least a portion of an address associated with the corresponding slot.

Slot/sub-slot prefetch architecture for multiple memory requestors

A method includes receiving, by a memory management unit (MMU) comprising a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) and a configuration register, a request from a processor core to directly modify an entry in the TLB. The method also includes, responsive to the configuration register having a first value, operating the MMU in a software-managed mode by modifying the entry in the TLB according to the request. The method further includes, responsive to the configuration register having a second value, operating the MMU in a hardware-managed mode by denying the request.

Software-hardware memory management modes

A system includes a multi-core shared memory controller (MSMC). The MSMC includes a snoop filter bank, a cache tag bank, and a memory bank. The cache tag bank is connected to both the snoop filter bank and the memory bank. The MSMC further includes a first coherent slave interface connected to a data path that is connected to the snoop filter bank. The MSMC further includes a second coherent slave interface connected to the data path that is connected to the snoop filter bank. The MSMC further includes an external memory master interface connected to the cache tag bank and the memory bank. The system further includes a first processor package connected to the first coherent slave interface and a second processor package connected to the second coherent slave interface. The system further includes an external memory device connected to the external memory master interface.

Multicore, multibank, fully concurrent coherence controller

A computer-implemented method includes fetching a fetch-packet containing a first hyper-block from a first address of a memory. The fetch-packet contains a bitwise distance from an entry point of the first hyper-block to a predicted exit point. A first branch instruction of the first hyper-block is executed that corresponds to a first exit point. The first branch instruction includes an address corresponding to an entry point of a second hyper-block. Responsive to executing the first branch instruction, a bitwise distance from the entry point of the first hyper-block to the first exit point is stored. A program counter is moved from the first exit point of the first hyper-block to the entry point of the second hyper-block.

Exit history based branch prediction

In described examples, a processor system includes a processor core generating memory transactions, a lower level cache memory with a lower memory controller, and a higher level cache memory with a higher memory controller having a memory pipeline. The higher memory controller is connected to the lower memory controller by a bypass path that skips the memory pipeline. The higher memory controller: determines whether a memory transaction is a bypass write, which is a memory write request indicated not to result in a corresponding write being directed to the higher level cache memory; if the memory transaction is determined a bypass write, determines whether a memory transaction that prevents passing is in the memory pipeline; and if no transaction that prevents passing is determined to be in the memory pipeline, sends the memory transaction to the lower memory controller using the bypass path.

Memory pipeline control in a hierarchical memory system

A device includes a data path, a first interface configured to receive a first memory access request from a first peripheral device, and a second interface configured to receive a second memory access request from a second peripheral device. The device further includes an arbiter circuit configured to, in a first clock cycle, a pre-arbitration winner between a first memory access request and a second memory access request based on a first number of credits allocated to a first destination device and a second number of credits allocated to a second destination device. The arbiter circuit is further configured to, in a second clock cycle select a final arbitration winner from among the pre-arbitration winner and a subsequent memory access request based on a comparison of a priority of the pre-arbitration winner and a priority of the subsequent memory access request.

Virtual network pre-arbitration for deadlock avoidance and enhanced performance

A nested loop controller includes a first register having a first value initialized to an initial first value, a second register having a second value initialized to an initial second value, and a third register configured as a predicate FIFO, initialized to have a third value. The second value is advanced in response to a tick instruction during execution of a loop. In response to the second value reaching a second threshold, the second register is reset to the initial second value. The nested loop controller further includes a comparator coupled to the second register and to the predicate FIFO and configured to provide an outer loop indicator value as input to the predicate FIFO when the second value is equal to the second threshold, and provide an inner loop indicator value as input to the predicate FIFO when the second value is not equal to the second threshold.

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Dallas, TX, United States of America

Kai Chirca