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. 12, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 19, 1997
Tadaaki Isobe, Hadano, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In an information processing system, a main storage access request issued from a processor is input to an access buffer mechanism provided in a memory control device, and sent via an operation request issue control mechanism to a main storage device constituted of a plurality of memory units (banks). In the memory control device, the operation status of each bank constituting the main storage device is managed and the number of banks under operation is counted. The predetermined number (operation bank limit number) of banks required to operate at a minimum is compared with the number (operation bank number) of banks under operation. If the operation bank number is smaller than the operation bank limit number, the memory control device instructs a dummy operation request generation mechanism to generate a dummy operation request, in order to prevent a large change in a power supply current to be caused by an abrupt change in the number of access requests to the main storage device and to realize a system stable operation. A dummy operation request generation mechanism determines a bank which executes a dummy operation, and an operation request issue control mechanism issues a dummy operation request to the determined bank in the main storage device.