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US 6,959,374 B2Granted
System including a memory controller configured to perform pre-fetch operations including dynamic pre-fetch control
AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.
InventorJurgen Schulz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system including a memory controller conf figured to perform pre-fetch operations including dynamic pre-fetch control. The system includes a memory coupled to a memory controller. The memory controller may be configured to fetch data from the memory in response to memory read requests. Further, the memory controller may be configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from the system memory dependent upon a bandwidth utilization of the memory.
Claims25
A system comprising:
- a memory;
- a memory controller coupled to said memory and configured to fetch data from said memory in response to memory read requests;
- wherein said memory controller is configured to predict a bandwidth utilization of said memory dependent upon a number of outstanding memory requests;
- and
- wherein said memory controller is further configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from said memory dependent upon said bandwidth utilization of said memory.
2 more elements
A system comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- a memory controller coupled to said memory and configured to fetch data from said memory in response to memory read requests;
- wherein said memory controller is further configured to determine a bandwidth utilization by monitoring memory bus cycles upon a memory bus coupled between said memory controller and said memory and by calculating a ratio of said memory requests to a total number of memory bus cycles;
- wherein said memory controller is further configured to enable and disable pre-fetching said data in response to said threshold value stored within said pre-fetch threshold enable storage exceeding said ratio, and said ratio equaling or exceeding a threshold value stored within a pre-fetch threshold enable storage respectively;
- wherein said memory controller is further configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from said memory dependent upon said bandwidth utilization of said memory by updating said threshold value during memory access operations.
3 more elements
A system comprising:
- a memory;
- a memory controller coupled to said memory and configured to fetch data from said memory in response to memory read requests;
- wherein said memory controller is further configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from said memory dependent upon a bandwidth utilization of said memory;
- wherein said memory controller includes a configuration storage configured to store a plurality of selectable values each representative of a respective pre-fetch address configuration value;
- wherein each of said respective pre-fetch address configuration values represents an offset from an address of a current memory request.
2 more elements
A memory controller comprising:
- a memory interface coupled to a memory and configured to fetch data from said memory in response to memory read requests;
- a pre-fetch unit coupled to said memory interface and configured to pre-fetch said data depending upon an address of a current memory request;
- wherein said memory interface is configured to predict a bandwidth utilization of said memory dependent upon a number of outstanding memory requests;
- and
- wherein said memory interface is further configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from said memory dependent upon said bandwidth utilization of said memory.
2 more elements
A memory controller comprising:
- a memory interface coupled to a memory and configured to fetch data from said memory in response to memory read requests;
- a pre-fetch unit coupled to said memory interface and configured to pre-fetch said data depending upon an address of a current memory request;
- wherein said memory interface is further configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from said memory dependent upon a bandwidth utilization of said memory;
- wherein said memory interface is further configured to determine said bandwidth utilization by calculating a ratio of said memory read requests to a total number of memory bus cycles;
- wherein said memory interface is further configured to enable and disable pre-fetching said data in response to said threshold value stored within said pre-fetch threshold enable storage exceeding said ratio, and said ratio equaling or exceeding a threshold value stored within a pre-fetch threshold enable storage, respectively;
- wherein said memory interface is configured to store said threshold value to said pre-fetch threshold enable storage during an initialization of said memory controller.
3 more elements
A memory controller comprising:
- a memory interface coupled to a memory and configured to fetch data from said memory in response to memory read requests;
- and
- a pre-fetch unit coupled to said memory interface and configured to pre-fetch said data depending upon an address of a current memory request;
- wherein said memory interface is further configured to dynamically adjust pre-fetching of data from said memory dependent upon a bandwidth utilization of said memory;
- wherein said pre-fetch unit includes a configuration storage configured to store a plurality of selectable values each representative of a respective pre-fetch address configuration value that represents an offset from an address of a current memory request;
- and
- wherein said pre-fetch unit is further configured to modify said plurality of selectable values within said configuration storage dependent upon said bandwidth utilization.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.