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. 13, 2009
Filed:
Jul. 18, 2006
Xiaowei Shen, Hopewell Junction, NY (US);
Man Cheuk NG, Cambridge, MA (US);
Aaron Christoph Sawdey, Cannon Falls, MN (US);
Xiaowei Shen, Hopewell Junction, NY (US);
Man Cheuk Ng, Cambridge, MA (US);
Aaron Christoph Sawdey, Cannon Falls, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
In a computer system with a memory hierarchy, when a high-level cache supplies a data copy to a low-level cache, the shared copy can be either volatile or non-volatile. When the data copy is later replaced from the low-level cache, if the data copy is non-volatile, it needs to be written back to the high-level cache; otherwise it can be simply flushed from the low-level cache. The high-level cache can employ a volatile-prediction mechanism that adaptively determines whether a volatile copy or a non-volatile copy should be supplied when the high-level cache needs to send data to the low-level cache. An exemplary volatile-prediction mechanism suggests use of a non-volatile copy if the cache line has been accessed consecutively by the low-level cache. Further, the low-level cache can employ a volatile-promotion mechanism that adaptively changes a data copy from volatile to non-volatile according to some promotion policy, or changes a data copy from non-volatile to volatile according to some demotion policy.