The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 17, 1994
Filed:
May. 23, 1991
Sandra J Baylor, Mt. Kisco, NY (US);
Kevin P McAuliffe, Peekskill, NY (US);
Bharat D Rathi, Mahopac, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A directory-based protocol is provided for maintaining data coherency in a multiprocessing (MP) system having a number of processors with associated write-back caches, a multistage interconnection network (MIN) leading to a shared memory, and a global directory associated with the main memory to keep track of state and control information of cache lines. Upon a request by a requesting cache for a cache line which has been exclusively modified by a source cache, two buffers are situated in the global directory to collectively intercept modified data words of the modified cache line during the write-back to memory. A modified word buffer is used to capture modified words within the modified cache line. Moreover, a line buffer stores an old cache line transferred from the memory, during the write back operation. Finally, the line buffer and the modified word buffer, together, provide the entire modified line to a requesting cache.