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:
Jan. 20, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 31, 2000
Stephen C. Root, Westborough, MA (US);
Richard E. Kessler, Shrewsbury, MA (US);
David H. Asher, Sutton, MA (US);
Brian Lilly, Marlborough, MA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A computer system has a set-associative, multi-way cache system, in which at least one way is designated as a fast lane, and remaining way(s) are designated slow lanes. Any data that needs to be loaded into cache, but is not likely to be needed again in the future, preferably is loaded into the fast lane. Data loaded into the fast lane is earmarked for immediate replacement. Data loaded into the slow lanes preferably is data that may not needed again in the near future. Slow data is kept in cache to permit it to be reused if necessary. The high-performance mechanism of data access in a modem microprocessor is with a prefetch; data is moved, with a special prefetch instruction, into cache prior to its intended use. The prefetch instruction requires less machine resources, than carrying out the same intent with an ordinary load instruction. So, the slow-lane, fast-lane decision is accomplished by having a multiplicity of prefetch instructions. By loading “not likely to be needed again” data into the fast lane, and designating such data for immediate replacement, data in other cache blocks, in the other ways, may not be evicted, and overall system performance is increased.