Computer compressed memory system and method for storing and retrieving data in a processing system

A computer compressed memory system for storing and retrieving data in a processing system, comprising:

• a memory comprising at least one optical storage memory device for storing at least one of uncompressed data and compressed data;
• a compressor for encoding data blocks into smaller units for storage in said memory;
• a decompressor for reconstituting encoded data into original uncompressed data blocks;
• a memory controller for generating, receiving and responding to memory access requests from processing and input/output units and responsively controlling access to said memory from said compressor and said decompressor for storing and retrieving data;
• and
• a hardware priority filter associated with said memory controller for preferably selecting specific memory access requests according to attributes and access type within prescribed rates and under specific conditions, said hardware priority filter comprising:
• means for performing software configuration of said prescribed memory access rates, said specific conditions and said associated request attributes;
• means for measuring a reference rate by number of references per unit of time and by number of references per total number of references per unit time;
• and
• means for measuring memory consumption rate per said request attributes for responsively selecting priority associated with said request attributes when memory pressure conditions are present,
• wherein said memory controller comprising:
• means for detecting when a critical memory condition is present by having exceeded a prescribed threshold and for forwarding data relating to said critical memory condition to said hardware priority filter;
• means for programming said prescribed threshold with a hysteresis;
• and
• means for detecting coherency conflicts between pending write requests and read requests between priority levels for having coherency requests services as a priority when a memory pressure condition is present and forwarding data related to said memory pressure condition to said hardware priority filter.

A computer-implemented method of regulating, with a hardware filter, memory access requests to insure quality of service during memory pressure, the computer comprising a processor for performing the method of regulating, the method comprising:

• selecting memory access requests associated with at least one of a processor supervisor mode and other attributes associated with the memory access requests;
• selecting memory requests that do not increase memory pressure;
• selecting memory write requests with a coherency conflict with a pending memory access request;
• and
• selecting memory access requests with a delay timer reset.

A computer memory system for storing and retrieving data in a processing system, comprising:

• a memory comprising a plurality of optical storage memory devices for storing data;
• a memory controller for generating, receiving and responding to memory access requests;
• and
• a hardware priority filter associated with said memory controller for preferably selecting specific memory access requests according to attributes and access type within prescribed memory access rates and under specific conditions.