Data structure synthesis in hardware using memory transaction translation techniques

Abstract

The inventive mechanism synthesizes complex software data structures in hardware by using memory transaction translation techniques. The mechanism includes a finite state machine and a bus controller. The state machine has a specific algorithm that defines the dynamic behavior of the synthesized structure. The bus controller manipulates memory control strobes and communicates to the memory bus and bridge. When a transaction references the data structure, the inventive mechanism processes the address of the request into a new address based upon the state of the structure. The finite state machine tracks the current state of the structure and calculates the new state or address. The mechanism the sends out the new address, which is processed by the memory device. The inventive mechanism can also manipulate the read and write aspects to transactions, in addition to the address aspects of the original transaction. For instance, a write transaction could be transformed into a read modify write locally to the memory. This type of operation would allow the construction of complex structures such as link lists and semaphores, in addition to FIFOs, and LIFOs.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.