System-wide power conservation using memory cache

A computer usable program product comprising a computer usable storage device including computer usable code for system-wide power conservation using memory cache, the computer usable code comprising:

• computer usable code for receiving a memory access request at a location in a memory architecture of a data processing system where processing the memory access request has to use a last level of cache before reaching a memory device holding a requested data;
• computer usable code for causing, using a memory controller, the memory access request to wait, and omitting adding the memory access request to a queue of existing memory access requests accepted for processing using the last level of cache;
• computer usable code for processing all the existing memory access requests in the queue using the last level of cache;
• computer usable code for purging the last level of cache to the memory device;
• computer usable code for processing the memory access request using an alternative path to the memory device that avoids the last level of cache;
• and
• computer usable code for powering down a cache device used as the last level of cache.

A data processing system for system-wide power conservation using memory cache, the data processing system comprising:

• a storage device including a storage medium, wherein the storage device stores computer usable program code;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor executes the computer usable program code, and wherein the computer usable program code comprises:
• computer usable code for receiving a memory access request at a location in a memory architecture of a data processing system where processing the memory access request has to use a last level of cache before reaching a memory device holding a requested data;
• computer usable code for causing, using a memory controller, the memory access request to wait, and omitting adding the memory access request to a queue of existing memory access requests accepted for processing using the last level of cache;
• computer usable code for processing all the existing memory access requests in the queue using the last level of cache;
• computer usable code for purging the last level of cache to the memory device;
• computer usable code for processing the memory access request using an alternative path to the memory device that avoids the last level of cache;
• and
• computer usable code for powering down a cache device used as the last level of cache.