Hardware prefetching of extended cache blocks

An electronic system comprising:

• a plurality of partitions;
• system memory;
• and
• a hardware prefetch engine for performing prefetches on a plurality of cache lines in an extended cache block, wherein the extended cache block includes the plurality of cache lines and at least one missed cache line at a missed address within the extended cache block,
• wherein extended cache block size is partition-dependent,
• wherein the missed cache line at the missed address is read from the system memory and a number X of prefetch requests are generated for all other cache lines in the extended cache block,
• where
• X
• =
• Block_size
• ⁢
• (
• partition
• )
• CL_size
• -
• 1
• -
• 1
• ,
• where Block_size(partition) is the extended cache block size as a function of one of the partitions, and
• where CL_size is size of the cache lines in the extended cache block.

A module for an electronic system including a plurality of partitions and system memory, the module comprising:

• cache;
• and
• a prefetch engine configured to respond to a cache miss in an extended cache block, which includes a plurality of cache lines and at least one missed cache line, by generating a number of prefetch requests for the plurality of cache lines in the extended cache block,
• wherein the number of prefetch requests is determined at runtime on a per-partition basis,
• wherein X denotes the number of prefetch requests, and
• X
• =
• Block_size
• ⁢
• (
• partition
• )
• CL_size
• -
• 1
• -
• 1
• ,
• where Block_size(partition) is size of the extended cache block as a function of a partition, and
• where CL_size is the size of a cache line in the extended cache block.

A method implemented by an electronic system including a cache and shared memory, the method comprising:

• using a memory access request to search the cache for a cache line;
• and
• when a cache miss occurs:
• copying a missed cache line from the shared memory into the cache;
• using a first field of the memory access request to identify an extended cache block that includes a plurality of cached lines and the missed cache line;
• using a second field of the memory access request to identify the plurality of cache lines in the extended cache block;
• and
• generating prefetch requests for the plurality of cache lines in the extended cache block,
• wherein X represents a number of the prefetch requests, and
• X
• =
• Block_size
• ⁢
• (
• partition
• )
• CL_size
• -
• 1
• -
• 1
• ,
• where Block_size(partition) is size of the extended cache block as a function of a partition, and
• where CL_size is size of a cache line in the extended cache block.