Reducing power consumption in a sequential cache
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsSatish Damaraju, Subramaniam Maiyuran, Peter Smith, Navin Monteiro
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Abstract
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a cache memory, which may be a sequential cache, having multiple banks. Each of the banks includes a data array, a decoder coupled to the data array to select a set of the data array, and a sense amplifier. Only a bank to be accessed may be powered, and in some embodiments early way information may be used to maintain remaining banks in a power reduced state. In some embodiments, clock gating may be used to maintain various components of the cache memory in a power reduced state. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Claims22
A method comprising:
- obtaining way information for a next data entry in a sequential cache, the sequential cache having a plurality of banks;
- and
- powering only the bank having the next data entry.
An article comprising a machine-accessible storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:
- read a first data entry of a sequential cache having multiple banks during a first cycle;
- obtain way information for a second data entry of the sequential cache during the first cycle;
- and
- enable only the bank of the sequential cache having the second data entry during a second cycle.
A cache memory comprising:
- data arrays each having N sets and a single way;
- wordline decoders each coupled to one of the data arrays;
- column selectors each coupled to one of the data arrays, each of the column selectors coupled to receive least significant bits of a set address;
- and
- sense amplifiers each coupled to one of the data arrays.
A system comprising:
- a dynamic random access memory to store information;
- and
- a cache memory coupled to the dynamic random access memory comprising:
- a plurality of banks, each bank having:
- a data array;
- a decoder coupled to the data array to select a set of the data array, wherein the decoder to be enabled only if the data array is selected for access;
- and
- a sense amplifier coupled to the data array to read data output from the data array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.