Memory management unit with programmable EDAC descriptors
AssigneeGoodrich Corporation
InventorsRobert Ward James, Arthur Howard Waldie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A memory management unit (MMU) of a digital processing system operating in a virtual address domain and a physical address domain comprises a memory programmable to store translation mappings between virtual addresses and physical addresses of the processing system. The memory is also programmable to store control codes representative of EDAC protection corresponding to the translation mappings. A method of operating the memory management unit (MMU) comprises the steps of: programming a memory of the MMU with virtual to physical address translation mappings; and programming the memory of the MMU with control codes representative of EDAC protection corresponding to the translation mappings.
Claims16
A memory management unit (MMU) of a digital processing system operating in a virtual address domain and a physical address domain, said digital processing system coupled to a plurality of external devices, having correspondingly assigned physical addresses, for exchanging digital data therewith, some of the external devices of said plurality having error correction and detection (EDAC) code protection capabilities and others of which having no EDAC code protection capabilities, said MMU operative to perform EDAC code processing on the digital data exchanged between the external devices and digital processing system, said MMU including:
- a memory programmable to store translation mappings between virtual addresses of said processing system and physical addresses of the external devices coupled thereto, wherein the digital processing system is operative to exchange digital data with a selected external device of said plurality based on a corresponding translation mapping;
- said memory also programmable to store in an assigned storage location of each translation mapping a control code representative of the EDAC protection capability of the external device corresponding to said translation mapping;
- and
- means for causing the MMU to perform an EDAC code processing operation on the digital data exchanged with said selected external device based on the control code of the corresponding translation mapping.
A method of operating a memory management unit (MMU) of a digital processing system operable in both virtual and physical address domains, said digital processing system coupled to a plurality of external devices, having correspondingly assigned physical addresses, for exchanging digital data therewith, some of the external devices of said plurality having error correction and detection (EDAC) code protection capabilities and others of which having no EDAC code protection capabilities, said MMU operative to perform EDAC code processing on the digital data exchanged between the external devices and digital processing system, said method comprising the steps of:
- programming a memory of the MMU with translation mappings between virtual addresses of the processing system and physical addresses of the external devices coupled thereto;
- exchanging digital data between the digital processing system and a selected external device of said plurality based on a corresponding translation mapping;
- programming an assigned storage location of each translation mapping of the memory of the MMU with a control code representative of the EDAC protection capability of the external device corresponding to said translation mapping;
- and
- causing the MMU to perform an EDAC code processing operation on the digital data exchanged with said selected external device based on the control code of the corresponding translation mapping.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.