System and method for cleaning dirty data in an intermediate cache using a data class dependent eviction policy

A system coupled to one or more clients and to an external memory and configured to manage information related to resident dirty data, the system comprising:

• an intermediate cache configured to store data related to memory access requests received from the one or more clients;
• and
• frame buffer logic coupled to the intermediate cache and including a notification sorter for storing information related to dirty data notifications received from the intermediate cache, the frame buffer logic configured to:
• receive a first dirty data notification from the intermediate cache related to dirty data residing in the intermediate cache, the first dirty data notification including a memory address indicating a location in the external memory where the dirty data should be stored and a data type associated with the dirty data;
• extract a bank page number from the memory address that identifies a bank page within the external memory where the dirty data should be stored;
• increment a first count associated with a first entry in the notification sorter that is affirmatively associated with the bank page, wherein the first count indicates the number of cache lines in the intermediate cache that have resident dirty data and are associated with the bank page;
• determine that the dirty data has a first data type;
• and
• increment a second count associated with the first entry, wherein the second count indicates the number of cache lines in the intermediate cache that have resident dirty data having the first data type and are associated with the bank page.

A computing device, comprising:

• one or more clients;
• an intermediate cache configured to store data related to memory access requests received from the one or more clients;
• frame buffer logic coupled to the intermediate cache and to an external memory and including a notification sorter for storing information related to dirty data notifications received from the intermediate cache, the frame buffer logic configured to:
• receive a first dirty data notification from the intermediate cache related to dirty data residing in the intermediate cache, the first dirty data notification including a memory address indicating a location in the external memory where the dirty data should be stored and a data type associated with the dirty data,
• extract a bank page number from the memory address that identifies a bank page within the external memory where the dirty data should be stored,
• increment a first count associated with a first entry in the notification sorter that is affirmatively associated with the bank page, wherein the first count indicates the number of cache lines in the intermediate cache that have resident dirty data and are associated with the bank page,
• determine that the dirty data has a first data type, and
• increment a second count associated with the first entry, wherein the second count indicates the number of cache lines in the intermediate cache that have resident dirty data having the first data type and are associated with the bank page;
• and
• a cross bar unit that couples the one or more clients to the intermediate cache.