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US 2003/0191913 A1Published application
Tracking memory page state
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsTHOMAS J. HOLMAN, ANDREW V. ANDERSON
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AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsTHOMAS J. HOLMAN, ANDREW V. ANDERSON
Estimating the term…
The present invention is a method and apparatus for tracking a state of a page of a memory device which has at least a dependent bank structure. A page entry table contains attribute entries of the page. An access control circuit generates access information and a command in response to a memory access. A tracking circuit is coupled to the page entry table and the access control circuit to update the attribute entries in the page entry table according to the command and the access information.
A method for tracking a state of a page of a memory device having at least a dependent bank structure, the method comprising:
An apparatus for tracking a state of a page of a memory device having at least a dependent bank structure, the apparatus comprising:
A system comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Addressing or allocation; Relocation: with look ahead addressing means
Computing and data processing
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems. In particular, the invention relates to memory devices.
2. Description of Related Art
The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a computer system in which one embodiment of the invention can be practiced.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a memory device tracked by a page tracking circuit according to one embodiment of the invention.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for tracking a state of a page in a memory device which has dependent banks. An entry page table stores the access information including the dependencies. A comparator/matching array matches the access information with the entries in the entry page table. An access status generator produces the access status based on the result of the matching. The entry page table is updated according to the access status. The present invention provides an efficient page tracking mechanism for a memory device with dependent and mixed structures.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details are not required in order to practice the present invention. In other instances, well known electrical structures and circuits are shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a computer system in which one embodiment of the invention can be practiced. The computer system 100 includes a processor 110, a host bus 120, a memory controller 130, and a memory device 140.