Efficient memory allocation scheme for data collection
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsJoey Y. Chen, L. Randall Mote, Thuji Simon Lin, Anders Hebsgaard
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Abstract
A system and method that provides an integrated circuit which includes a small on-chip buffer to store collected data, thereby shifting the burden of storing the majority of the collected data to external system memory, which is typically comprised of commodity memory chips. Since this external system memory is already in use by other system functions, utilizing such unused regions of this external memory increases overall hardware efficiency, while achieving lower ASIC manufacturing cost.
Claims17
A method for managing data in an integrated circuit, comprising:
- (a) receiving data from one or more sources within the integrated circuit;
- (b) storing the data in a buffer memory;
- (c) transferring the data from the buffer to an external memory location at a predetermined point;
- and
- repeating (a) through (c).
A system for managing data in an integrated circuit, comprising:
- a system memory;
- at least one source of data;
- a buffer memory;
- and
- a controller connected to the at least one source, wherein the controller is operative to receive data from the at least one source and transfer the data to the buffer, wherein at a predetermined point the buffer is instructed to transfer the data to the system memory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.