Architecture support of memory access coloring
AssigneeIBM Corporation
InventorsXiaowei Shen, Robert W. Wisniewski, Orran Krieger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Memory Access Coloring provides architecture support that allows software to classify memory accesses into different congruence classes by specifying a color for each memory access operation. The color information is received and recorded by the underlying system with appropriate granularity. This allows hardware to monitor color-based cache monitoring information and provide such feedback to the software to enable various runtime optimizations. It also enables enforcement of different memory consistency models for memory regions with different colors at the same time.
Claims20
An apparatus for accessing a memory storage structure in a computer, said apparatus comprising:
- a generator that generates memory access operations in response to software;
- a receiver that receives and records color information by hardware in the storage structure;
- an assignor that assigns a color to memory access operations;
- wherein the hardware is able to distinguish between memory access operations with different colors.
A method of accessing a storage structure, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating memory access operations in response to software;
- receiving and recording color information by hardware in the storage structure;
- assigning a color to memory access operations;
- wherein the hardware is able to distinguish between memory accesses with different colors.
A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for accessing a storage structure, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating memory access operations in response to software;
- receiving and recording color information by the hardware in the storage structure;
- assigning a color to memory access operations;
- wherein the hardware is able to distinguish between memory accesses with different colors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.