Intel Corporation

Richard J Burgess, Jr

Mark A Schaecher

Lawrence T Clark

Jay B Miller

Kimberley E Wagner

Embodiments of the invention are disclosed that include a low power memory and a low power data path.

Method and apparatus for low power memory

Embodiments are disclosed that include a low power memory and/or a low power data path. One particular embodiment, for example, includes a technique to reduce power consumption. In one particular embodiment, for example, a grouping of bits, such as a 32-bit word, for example, is stored in inverted form if more than half of the bits have a bit value of logic &ldquo;1&rdquo; rather than logic &ldquo;0.&rdquo; Likewise, in this embodiment, if more than half of the bits have a bit value of logic &ldquo;0&rdquo; rather than logic &ldquo;1,&rdquo; then the grouping of bits is not stored in inverted form.

A method for conserving power during a cache memory operation is disclosed. The validity and the parity of the tag address are checked. If the tag is invalid or the parity bit does not check, the tag is not read and a tag comparison is not performed, such that the data is accessed from the main memory. Otherwise, the tag address bits are selected in a plurality of tag subsets. A first tag subset of the plurality of tag subsets is compared with a respective first subset of the tag field of the memory address bits. A first compare signal indicative of the result of the first comparison is outputted. The cache memory operation is interrupted if the first compare signal indicates the first tag subset does not match the respective first subset of the tag field of the memory address.

Low power cache operation through the use of partial tag comparison

A method and apparatus for improving the access time of a memory device is described. The location based timing scheme utilizes a subset of the address bits to adjust the timing of the sense amplifier enable in order to achieve a faster read of the information stored in the memory cell.

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Cherry Valley, MA, United States of America

Richard J Burgess, Jr