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:
Apr. 06, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 10, 1997
Thomas B Genduso, West Palm Beach, FL (US);
Wan L Leung, Coral Springs, FL (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A stack cache memory mechanism and method for managing the mechanism are provided. The mechanism comprises a data array including a plurality of storage elements in which stack data may be stored, and a plurality of individual stack tag sets for identifying beginning and ending locations of a corresponding plurality of individual stacks contained within the data array. Each of the individual stack tag sets comprise (i) a first register for containing an address in the data array corresponding to the top of a stack associated with that individual stack tag set and (ii) a second register for containing an address in the data array corresponding to the bottom of a stack associated with that individual stack tag set. A backward pointer array comprises a plurality of backward pointers which map each of the plurality of stack tag sets to address locations in the data array. Allocation logic determines which of the data array storage elements are currently included within existing stacks, as defined by the plurality of backward pointers and the plurality of stack tag sets, and which of the data array storage elements are available to be allocated to a stack.