Methods for improved data caching
AssigneeEnterasys Networks, Inc.
InventorGregory Haskins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Write transactions with large amounts of data using a typical cache may consume over half of the available backing store bandwidth because of the way traditional caching algorithms fill lines during a write-invoked eviction. Relaxing the traditional constraint of cache coherency improves write performance by eliminating unneeded cache line fills. This technique conserves backing store bandwidth during many write operations while having negligible impact on the cache's read performance.
Claims28
A method for servicing requests to a backing store using a cache comprising at least one structure, the cache structure being associated with at least one address in the backing store, the method comprising:
- (a) receiving a request to write to at least one address in the backing store;
- (b) determining the presence in the cache of a cache structure associated with the at least one address;
- (c) if no cache structure is associated with the at least one address, adding data to an invalidated cache structure from at least one address in the backing store that includes the at least one address of the request;
- (d) servicing the request using the cache structure of step (c);
- and
- (e) storing a value indicating a contiguous subregion of the structure affected by the servicing of the request.
A method for servicing requests to a backing store using a cache comprising at least one structure, the cache structure being associated with at least one address in the backing store, the method comprising:
- (a) receiving a request to write to at least one address in the backing store;
- (b) determining the presence in the cache of a cache structure associated with the at least one address;
- (c) if no cache structure is associated with the at least one address, evicting a first structure in the cache;
- (d) servicing the request using the first cache structure;
- and
- (e) storing a value indicating the contiguous subregion of the first cache structure affected by the servicing of the request.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.