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:
May. 20, 2014
Filed:
Mar. 22, 2011
Zoran Radovic, San Jose, CA (US);
Graham Ricketson Murphy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Paul J. Jordan, Austin, TX (US);
John G. Johnson, San Jose, CA (US);
Zoran Radovic, San Jose, CA (US);
Graham Ricketson Murphy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Paul J. Jordan, Austin, TX (US);
John G. Johnson, San Jose, CA (US);
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA (US);
Abstract
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that uses unused bits in a memory pointer. During operation, the system determines a set of address bits in a address space that will not be needed for addressing purposes during program operation. Subsequently, the system stores data associated with the memory pointer in this set of address bits. The system masks this set of address bits when using the memory pointer to access the memory address associated with the memory pointer. Storing additional data in unused pointer bits can reduce the number of memory accesses for a program and improve program performance and/or reliability.