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:
Sep. 10, 1996
Filed:
Feb. 08, 1995
Randall D Groves, Austin, TX (US);
John T O'Quin, II, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for improving data processing system performance having a cache. Data from one cache line is easily and quickly copied to another cache line within the cache. In the preferred embodiment, this copy cache line operation is initiated using an opcode of a central processing unit's instruction set. Thus, software running on the data processing system can invoke this cache line copy by executing this CPU instruction. Another feature is the ability to rename a cache line, again using a CPU instruction to initiate the operation. This provides a logical copy of the cache data without having to perform a physical copy.