US 7,257,693 B2 · Multi-processor computing system that employs compressed cache lines' worth of information and processor capable of use in said system

Abstract

Cache coherency rules for a multi-processor computing system that is capable of working with compressed cache lines' worth of information are described. A multi-processor computing system that is capable of working with compressed cache lines' worth of information is also described. The multi-processor computing system includes a plurality of hubs for communicating with various computing system components and for compressing/decompressing cache lines' worth of information. A processor that is capable of labeling cache lines' worth of information in accordance with the cache coherency rules is described. A processor that includes a hub as described above is also described.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer system comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU) having:
a CPU core;
cache memory having a plurality of cache lines, each of the plurality of cache lines being compressible to form compressed cache lines to store additional data;
and
compression/decompression logic;
and
a memory controller coupled to the CPU having a compression map to indicate whether a cache line corresponding to a block of data in a system memory is in a compressed format, and a type of compression used for each cache line stored in a compressed format.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

10/759,922Filed 15 Jan 2004

Published

US 2005/0160234 A121 Jul 2005

Granted

14 Aug 2007

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G06F 12/0886
Cache access modes: variable-length word access
G06F 12/0802
In hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems: addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or…
G06F 12/0864
Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches: using…
G06F 2212/401
Specific encoding of data in memory or cache: compressed data

Multi-processor computing system that employs compressed cache lines' worth of information and processor capable of use in said system

Life of this patent

Multi-processor computing system that employs compressed cache lines' worth of information and processor capable of use in said system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20