Computer system and data pre-fetching method
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorHidenori Matsuzaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computer system according to an example of the invention comprises SPEs and a global memory. The SPEs include a running SPE and an idling SPE. The running SPE and the idling SPE each have a processor core, local memory and DMA module. The local memory of the idling SPE stores data stored in the global memory and used by the processor core of the running SPE, before the data is used by the processor core of the running SPE. The DMA module of the running SPE reads the data from the local memory of the idling SPE, and transfers the data to the processor core of the running SPE.
Claims18
A computer system comprising multiple processing elements and a global memory, wherein:
- the multiple processing elements include a running multiple processing element and an idling multiple processing element;
- the multiple processing elements each have a processor core, local memory, a DMA module and a memory management unit;
- at least one of the local memories of the multiple processing elements stores data stored in the global memory and used by the processor core of the running multiple processing element, before the data is used by the processor core of the running multiple processing element, and
- the DMA module of the running multiple processing element reads the data from the local memory of the running multiple processing element when the data is stored in the local memory of the running multiple processing element and reads the data from the local memory of the idling multiple processing element via the DMA module of the idling multiple processing element when the data is stored in the local memory of the idling multiple processing element, and transfers the data to the processor core of the running multiple processing element using a physical address for the data stored in the memory management unit;
- and the physical address for the data stored in the memory management unit of running multiple processing element is updated to indicate the data stored in the local memory of the idling multiple processing element when the data is stored in the local memory of the idling multiple processing element.
A data pre-fetching method by a computer system, wherein:
- the computer system comprises multiple processing elements and a global memory;
- the multiple processing elements comprise a running multiple processing element and an idling multiple processing element;
- the multiple processing elements each have a processor core, local memory, a DMA module and a memory management unit;
- and
- the method comprises
- storing data stored in the global memory and used by the processor core of the running multiple processing element in at least one of the local memories of the multiple processing elements, before the data is used by the processor core of the running multiple processing element;
- updating a physical address for the data stored in the memory management unit of the running multiple processing element to indicate the data stored in the local memory of the idling multiple processing element when the data is stored in the local memory of the idling multiple processing element;
- and
- reading the data from the local memory of the running multiple processing element when the data is stored in the local memory of the running multiple processing element and reading the data from the local memory of the idling multiple processing element via the DMA module of the idling multiple processing element when the data is stored in the local memory of the idling multiple processing element and transfers the data to the processor core of the running multiple processing element by the DMA module of the running multiple processing element using the physical address for the data stored in the memory management unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.