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:
Jul. 29, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 31, 1999
Kenneth L. Engelbrecht, Blaine, MN (US);
Hans C. Mikkelsen, Afton, MN (US);
Wayne D. Ward, New Brighton, MN (US);
Unisys Corporation, Blue Bell, PA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for increasing processing performance in a computer system by asynchronously performing system activities that do not conflict with normal instruction processing, during inactive memory access periods. The computer system includes at least one instruction processor to process instructions of an instruction stream, and a memory to store data. One or more inactive data blocks in the memory are identified, and a list of addresses corresponding to the identified inactive data blocks is generated. Available computing cycles occurring during processing in the computer system are identified, such as processing stalls and idle memory write periods. The inactive data blocks associated with the list of addresses are initialized to a predetermined state, during the available computing cycles. Addresses corresponding to those initialized data blocks are then made available to the computing system to facilitate use of the data blocks.