Method for reducing power consumption through dynamic memory storage inversion
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorEhud Cohen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for reducing the power needed in a computing system to refresh dynamic random access memory. In one embodiment of the invention, data to be stored to DRAM is evaluated one word at a time. For each eight-bit data word, if the number of ones is more than four, each bit of the data word is inverted and a data inversion indicator (DII) bit is set to logic one, to indicate that the data has been inverted. This allows for the data to be stored accurately with the minimum number of ones present. Because of the power required to refresh ones stored in DRAM, storing a minimum number of ones will reduce power consumption. A read of the data will determine if the data had been inverted upon storage and if so will revert the data to its original form.
Claims27
A method comprising:
- receiving a binary data segment, the binary data segment to be stored to memory;
- determining the number of ones contained in the binary data segment;
- determining a specified threshold number of ones such that inverting the ones will result in a power savings;
- inverting the binary data segment if the number of ones is above the specified threshold;
- and
- storing the binary data segment to the memory such that an inverted binary data segment is indicated by an inversion indicator.
A machine-readable medium that provides executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
- receiving a binary data segment, the binary data segment to be stored to memory;
- determining the number of ones contained in the binary data segment;
- determining a specified threshold number of ones such that inverting the ones will result in a power savings;
- inverting the binary data segment if the number of ones is above the specified threshold;
- and
- storing the binary data segment to the memory such that an inverted binary data segment is indicated by an inversion indicator.
An apparatus comprising:
- a receiving unit to receive a binary data segment, the binary data segment to be stored to memory;
- a counting unit to determine the number of ones contained in the binary data segment;
- an inverting unit to invert the binary data segment if the number of ones is above a specified threshold, the specified threshold indicating a number of ones such that inverting the ones will result in a power savings;
- and
- a memory unit to store the binary data segment such that an inverted binary data segment is indicated by an inversion indicator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.