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. 26, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 23, 1995
Michael John Mayfield, Austin, TX (US);
Trinh Huy Nguyen, Pflugerville, TX (US);
Robert James Reese, Austin, TX (US);
Michael Thomas Vaden, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Within a data processing system implementing L1 and L2 caches and stream filters and buffers, prefetching of cache lines is performed in a progressive manner. In one mode, data may not be prefetched. In a second mode, two cache lines are prefetched wherein one line is prefetched into the L1 cache and the next line is prefetched into a stream buffer. In a third mode, more than two cache lines are prefetched at a time. In the third mode cache lines may be prefetched to the L1 cache and not the L2 cache, resulting in no inclusion between the L1 and L2 caches. A directory field entry provides an indication of whether or not a particular cache line in the L1 cache is also included in the L2 cache.