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:
Dec. 03, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 18, 2000
Retaining state information of an array of elements by subdividing the array into groups of elements
Richard Carlson, Ft Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods improve state information retention when selecting a not-recently-used element in an array of N elements. A first method comprises the steps of subdividing the array of N elements into K groups, selecting a group from among the K groups, selecting an element that is set to a not-recently-used state from the elements in the selected group, and marking the selected element as recently-used. If all the elements in the selected group are marked as recently-used, the method preferably marks all the elements in the selected group, except the selected element, as not-recently-used. Alternately, the method simply marks all the elements in the selected group when all the elements in the selected group are marked as recently-used. The method also preferably cycles through the groups so that a different group is selected each time. A second method comprises the steps of selecting an element that is marked as not-recently-used from the elements in the array, marking the selected element as recently-used and marking all the elements in the array except the selected element as not-recently-used when all the elements in the array are marked as recently-used. A program that comprises components that execute the above methods is embodied on a computer readable medium.