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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsFlorian A. Auernhammer, Patricia M. Sagmeister
Estimating the term…
An I/O controller, coupled to a processing unit and to a memory, includes an I/O link interface configured to receive data packets having virtual addresses; an address translation unit having an address translator to translate received virtual addresses into real addresses by translation control entries and a cache allocated to the address translator to cache a number of the translation control entries; an I/O packet processing unit for checking the data packets received at the I/O link interface and for forwarding the checked data packets to the address translation unit; and a prefetcher to forward address translation prefetch information from a data packet received to the address translation unit; the address translator configured to fetch the translation control entry for the data packet by the address translation prefetch information from the allocated cache or, if the translation control entry is not available in the allocated cache, from the memory.
A method for operating an I/O controller coupled to a processing unit and to a memory, wherein the I/O controller includes an I/O link interface for receiving data packets having virtual addresses, an address translation unit having an address translator for translating received virtual addresses into real addresses by translation control entries and a cache allocated to the address translator for caching a number of the translation control entries, and an I/O packet processing unit for checking the data packets received at the link interface and for forwarding the checked data packets to the address translation unit, the method comprising:
The method of 15, wherein the prefetcher further includes a read counter coupled to the read queue to keep track of a defined read prefetch distance and delaying further read prefetches if the defined read prefetch distance reaches a configurable threshold, and a write counter coupled to the write queue to keep track of a defined write prefetch distance and for delaying further write prefetches if the defined write prefetch distance reaches a configurable threshold, wherein the arbiter is configured to arbitrate the read queue and the write queue in dependence on the read counter and the write counter.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a computer, implement a method for operating an I/O controller coupled to a processing unit and to a memory, wherein the I/O controller includes an I/O link interface for receiving data packets having virtual addresses, an address translation unit having an address translator for translating received virtual addresses into real addresses by translation control entries and a cache allocated to the address translator for caching a number of the translation control entries, and an I/O packet processing unit for checking the data packets received at the link interface and for forwarding the checked data packets to the address translation unit, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.