Memory structures having selectively disabled portions for power conservation
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsDavid M. Brooks, Vivek Tiwari
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An architecture for registers and/or memory may provide a selectively disable payload portion. The architecture induced energy conservation. The architecture may include two or more payload portions for storage of payload data and a portion for storage of administrative data. Based on the contacts of the administrative data, certain payload portions may be enabled or disabled.
Claims18
A register for use in an integrated circuit, comprising
- a plurality of storage cells, a first portion of the storage cells being selectively disabled while a second portion of the storage cells is enabled, and
- means for disabling the first portion when a length of data to be stored in the register fits entirely within the second portion.
A system comprising:
- a data decoder having outputs for data and a flag identifier,
- a register file populated by a plurality of registers, at least one register having two payload portions, the second payload portion being selectively disabled in response to the flag identifier.
A system comprising:
- an address decoder,
- a delay element coupled to the address decoder,
- a register file populated by a payload memory and a flag memory, the flag memory coupled to the address decoder, the payload memory coupled to the delay element, and
- a data decoder coupled to the flag memory and the payload memory.
A method of storing a data item in a register, the register having a plurality of payload portions each of a respective width, comprising, when a width of a data item does not exceed the width of a first payload portion, storing the data in the first payload portion and disabling a second payload portion.
A register comprising:
- a plurality of storage cells provided along a wordline,
- a disabling circuit provided on the wordline interspersed between first and second sets of the storage cells, and
- an admin storage cell provided along the wordline and having an output that controls the disabling circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.