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:
Feb. 13, 1996
Filed:
Apr. 20, 1992
Ravi K Arimilli, Round Rock, TX (US);
Sudhir Dhawan, Austin, TX (US);
David W Siegel, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Apparatus and method for improving the rate of transfer of data in the context of a system memory operated in conjunction with a cache. In one form, mask bits in a mask bit register are associated to bytes of cache. The mask bits are changed in state when the corresponding byte in the cache is written. The mask bits are used in a reordered operating sequence to selectively write data from system memory into the cache after a write into cache. Data transfer performance is improved significantly in that the selective writing of data from system memory to cache can be completely eliminated when the mask bits indicate that a whole unit of the cache, typically a cache line, has been written during the data transfer into the cache.