Processing system that increases the memory capacity of a gpgpu
AssigneeAlibaba Damo (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd.
InventorsYuhao WANG, Dimin NIU, Yijin GUAN, Shengcheng WANG, Shuangchen LI, Hongzhong ZHENG
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The total memory space that is logically available to a processor in a general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) module is increased to accommodate terabyte-sized amounts of data by utilizing the memory space in an external memory module, and by further utilizing a portion of the memory space in a number of other external memory modules.
Claims20
A processing system comprising:
- a plurality of external memory units, each of the plurality of external memory units having:
- an extension memory having a first plurality of memory addresses;
- an interconnect circuit having a second plurality of memory addresses, the interconnect circuit having an extension controller and a number of ports coupled to the extension controller, each port of a first external memory unit being coupled to another external memory unit of the plurality of external memory units, and assigned a range of memory addresses within the second plurality of memory addresses;
- and
- a memory control circuit coupled to the extension memory and the interconnect circuit, the memory control circuit to receive a memory request having a memory address, determine whether the memory address lies within the first plurality of memory addresses or within the second plurality of memory addresses, forward the memory address to the extension memory when the memory address lies within the first plurality of memory addresses, and forward the memory address to the interconnect circuit when the memory address lies within the second plurality of memory addresses,
- the extension controller of the interconnect circuit to receive the memory address when the memory address lies within the second plurality of memory addresses, determine a port of the number of ports that was assigned the range of addresses that include the memory address, and forward the memory address to the port.
A method of operating a processing system, the method comprising:
- receiving a memory request having a memory address;
- determining whether the memory address lies within a first plurality of memory addresses associated with an extension memory or within a second plurality of memory addresses associated with an interconnect circuit;
- forwarding the memory address to the extension memory when the memory address lies within the first plurality of memory addresses, and forwarding the memory address to the interconnect circuit when the memory address lies within the second plurality of memory addresses;
- receiving the memory address when the memory address lies within the second plurality of memory addresses;
- determining a port of a plurality of ports that was assigned a range of addresses that include the memory address;
- and
- forwarding the memory address to the port.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embedded therein program instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a device, causes the device to execute a method that operates a processing system, the method comprising:
- receiving a memory request having a memory address;
- determining whether the memory address lies within a first plurality of memory addresses associated with an extension memory or within a second plurality of memory addresses associated with an interconnect circuit;
- forwarding the memory address to the extension memory when the memory address lies within the first plurality of memory addresses, and forwarding the memory address to the interconnect circuit when the memory address lies within the second plurality of memory addresses;
- receiving the memory address when the memory address lies within the second plurality of memory addresses;
- determining a port of a plurality of ports that was assigned a range of addresses that include the memory address;
- and
- forwarding the memory address to the port.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.