Methods and apparatus for supporting persistent memory

A data processing system with features to support persistent memory, the data processing system comprising:

• a processing element;
• at least one machine accessible medium responsive to the processing element, wherein the at least one machine accessible medium comprises persistent memory to operate within a persistent memory domain;
• and
• a memory management system to facilitate communications between the processing element and the persistent memory, wherein the memory management system is configured to enable the data processing system to perform operations comprising:
• providing an enhanced write-back (WB-E) memory space for an application running on the processing element;
• mapping the WB-E memory space to the persistent memory;
• in response to creation of WB-E data by the application, automatically storing the WB-E data in a cache associated with the processing element, wherein the application creates WB-E data by executing an instruction to store data to an address in the WB-E memory space;
• and
• in response to execution of a commit instruction by the application after the application has created WB-E data for multiple memory addresses, automatically ensuring that all of the WB-E data for the application has been saved to the persistent memory domain.

A method for supporting persistent memory, the method comprising:

• providing an enhanced write-back (WB-E) memory space for an application running on a processing unit of a processing device, wherein the processing device comprises a memory management system and persistent memory in a persistent memory domain, and wherein the memory management system maps the WB-E memory space to the persistent memory;
• automatically storing WB-E data in a cache associated with the processing unit in response to creation of the WB-E data by the application, wherein the application creates the WB-E data by executing an instruction to store data to an address in the WB-E memory space;
• and
• in response to execution of a commit instruction by the application after the application has created WB-E data for multiple memory addresses, automatically ensuring that all of the WB-E data for the application has been saved to the persistent memory domain, wherein the operation of automatically ensuring that all of the WB-E data for the application has been saved to the persistent memory domain is performed by the memory management system.

At least one machine accessible medium comprising computer instructions for supporting persistent memory, wherein the computer instructions, in response to being executed on a data processing system, enable the data processing system to perform operations comprising:

• providing an enhanced write-back (WB-E) memory space for an application running on a processing unit of the data processing system, wherein the data processing system comprises a memory management system and persistent memory in a persistent memory domain, and wherein the memory management system maps the WB-E memory space to the persistent memory;
• automatically storing WB-E data in a cache associated with the processing unit in response to creation of the WB-E data by the application, wherein the application creates the WB-E data by executing an instruction to store data to an address in the WB-E memory space;
• and
• in response to execution of a commit instruction by the application after the application has created WB-E data for multiple memory addresses, automatically ensuring that all of the WB-E data for the application has been saved to the persistent memory domain, wherein the operation of automatically ensuring that all of the WB-E data for the application has been saved to the persistent memory domain is performed by the memory management system.