Dynamically updating hardware prefetch trait to exclusive or shared in multi-memory access agent system

A method for hardware data prefetching by a memory access agent, wherein the memory access agent is one of a plurality of memory access agents that share a memory, the method comprising:

• initializing a prefetch trait to either exclusive or shared;
• performing hardware prefetches from a memory block of the shared memory using the prefetch trait;
• performing analysis of accesses to the memory block by the plurality of memory access agents;
• and
• dynamically updating the prefetch trait to either exclusive or shared based on the analysis while the prefetch module performs hardware prefetches from the memory block using the prefetch trait.

A computer program product encoded in at least one non-transitory computer usable medium for use with a computing device, the computer program product comprising:

• computer usable program code embodied in said medium, for specifying a hardware data prefetcher comprised in a memory access agent, wherein the memory access agent is one of a plurality of memory access agents that share a memory, the computer usable program code comprising:
• first program code for specifying a prefetch trait that is initially either exclusive or shared;
• second program code for specifying a prefetch module that performs hardware prefetches from a memory block of the shared memory using the prefetch trait;
• and
• third program code for specifying an update module that performs analysis of accesses to the memory block by the plurality of memory access agents and, based on the analysis, dynamically updates the prefetch trait to either exclusive or shared while the prefetch module performs hardware prefetches from the memory block using the prefetch trait.