Accessing memory arrays
AssigneeArm Limited
InventorsAshley Miles Stevens, Daren Croxford
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A memory controller for controlling access to a memory, said memory comprising at least one memory array, said at least one memory array comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, access to an element within said memory array being performed by opening a row comprising said element and then accessing a column comprising said element, said at least one memory array being adapted to have no more than one row in said at least one memory array open at a time; said memory controller being responsive to a memory access request to access an element within said memory and following said access to determine if said row comprising said accessed element should be closed or should remain open in dependence upon a property of said memory access request.
Claims26
A memory controller for controlling access to a memory, said memory comprising at least one memory array, said at least one memory array comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, access to an element within said memory array being performed by opening a row comprising said element and then accessing a column comprising said element, said at least one memory array being adapted to have no more than one row in said at least one memory array open at a time;
- said memory controller being responsive to a memory access request to access an element within said memory and following said access to determine if said row comprising said accessed element should be closed or should remain open in dependence upon a property of said memory access request.
A memory controller for controlling access to a memory comprising at least one memory array, said at least one memory array comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, access to an element within said at least one memory array being performed by opening a row comprising said element and then accessing a column comprising said element, said memory array being adapted to have no more than one row in said at least one memory array open at a time;
- said memory controller having access to a data store for storing a predicted probability for at least some elements recently accessed within said memory array, said predicted probability predicting whether subsequent memory accesses to said memory array are to a same row, said memory controller being responsive to a memory access request to an element to access said data store and in response to said predicted probability to either leave said row open or to close said row following said memory access.
A method of controlling accesses to a memory, said memory comprising at least one memory array, said at least one memory array comprising a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, access to an element within said memory array being performed by opening a row comprising said element and then accessing a column comprising said element, said at least one memory array being adapted to have no more than one row in said at least one memory array open at a time;
- said method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a memory access request to an element;
- determining if said row comprising said accessed element should be closed or should remain open in dependence upon a property of said memory access request;
- accessing said element;
- and
- either leaving said row open or closing it in dependence upon said determination.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.