Data control using last accessor information
OwnerSimon C. Steeley, JR., William C. Hasenplaughinventors
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Abstract
In some implementations, a shared cache structure may be provided for sharing data among a plurality of processor cores. A data structure may be associated with the shared cache structure, and may include a plurality of entries, with each entry corresponding to one of the cache lines in the shared cache. Each entry in the data structure may further include a field to identify a processor core that most recently requested the data of the cache line corresponding to the entry. When a request for a particular cache line is received, a request for the data may be sent to a particular processor core identified in the data structure as the last accessor of the data.
Claims20
A processor comprising:
- a cache having a plurality of cache lines to store data;
- a plurality of processor cores to share the data stored in the cache;
- a data structure to include a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding to one of the cache lines in the cache;
- and
- an indicator associated with a respective entry in the data structure, the indicator to identify a processor core of the plurality of processor cores that last requested access to the cache line corresponding to the respective entry.
A method comprising:
- receiving, from a particular processor core of multiple processor cores, a data access request for data corresponding to a particular cache line in a cache able to be shared by the multiple processor cores;
- accessing a data structure having a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding to a cache line of a plurality of cache lines in the cache;
- and
- updating a field in a particular entry in the data structure that corresponds to the particular cache line to identify that the particular processor core has most recently requested the data corresponding to the particular cache line.
A system comprising:
- a plurality of processor cores;
- at least one cache having a plurality of cache lines, the plurality of processor cores able to share the at least one cache;
- and
- a controller maintaining a directory to include a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding to one of the cache lines, each entry including:
- a memory address associated with data maintained in the cache line corresponding to the entry;
- and
- a field to identify a processor core of the plurality of processor cores that most recently requested the data of the cache line corresponding to the entry.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.