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:
Aug. 16, 2016
Filed:
Dec. 21, 2010
Simon C. Steely, Jr., Hudson, NH (US);
Joel S. Emer, Hudson, MA (US);
William C. Hasenplaugh, Boston, MA (US);
Simon C. Steely, Jr., Hudson, NH (US);
Joel S. Emer, Hudson, MA (US);
William C. Hasenplaugh, Boston, MA (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus to reduce unnecessary write backs of cached data to a main memory and to optimize the usage of a cache memory tag directory. In one embodiment of the invention, the power consumption of a processor can be saved by eliminating write backs of cache memory lines that has information that has reached its end-of-life. In one embodiment of the invention, when a processing unit is required to clear one or more cache memory lines, it uses a write-zero command to clear the one or more cache memory lines. The processing unit does not perform a write operation to move or pass data values of zero to the one or more cache memory lines. By doing so, it reduces the power consumption of the processing unit.