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.

Date of Patent:
May. 23, 2017

Filed:

Jan. 13, 2014
Applicant:

Imagination Technologies, Ltd., Kings Langley, GB;

Inventor:

Jason Meredith, Hemel Hempstead, GB;

Assignee:
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 3/00 (2006.01); G06F 9/46 (2006.01); G06F 12/0862 (2016.01); G06F 12/0891 (2016.01); G06F 9/38 (2006.01); G06F 12/0897 (2016.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 12/0862 (2013.01); G06F 9/3804 (2013.01); G06F 12/0891 (2013.01); G06F 12/0897 (2013.01);
Abstract

Methods and systems for improved control of traffic generated by a processor are described. In an embodiment, when a device generates a pre-fetch request for a piece of data or an instruction from a memory hierarchy, the device includes a pre-fetch identifier in the request. This identifier flags the request as a pre-fetch request rather than a non-pre-fetch request, such as a time-critical request. Based on this identifier, the memory hierarchy can then issue an abort response at times of high traffic which suppresses the pre-fetch traffic, as the pre-fetch traffic is not fulfilled by the memory hierarchy. On receipt of an abort response, the device deletes at least a part of any record of the pre-fetch request and if the data/instruction is later required, a new request is issued at a higher priority than the original pre-fetch request.


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