Using Associative Or Pseudo-associative Address Translation Means, E.g., Translation Look-aside Buffer (tlb), Address Translation Buffer (atb), Address Cache, Etc. (epo) Patents (Class 711/E12.061)
  • Patent number: 8275971
    Abstract: A method and a system for allowing a guest operating system (guest OS) to modify an entry in a TLB directly without an involvement of a hypervisor are disclosed. Upon receiving a guest TLB miss exception, a guest OS issues a TLBWE (TLB Write Entry) instruction to logic. The logic executes the TLBWE instruction at a supervisor mode without invoking a hypervisor. The TLB may incorporate entries in a guest page table and entries in a host page table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hubertus Franke, Benjamin Herrenschmidt, Jon K. Kriegel, Andrew M. Theurer, James Xenidis
  • Publication number: 20120239904
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for interfacing between a multi-threaded processing core and an accelerator. In one embodiment, the method comprises copying from the processing core to the hardware accelerator memory address translations for each of multiple threads operating on the processing core, and simultaneously storing on the hardware accelerator one or more of the memory address translations for each of the threads. Whenever any one of the multiple threads operating on the processing core instructs the hardware accelerator to perform a specified operation, the hardware accelerator has stored thereon one or more of the memory address translations for the any one of the threads. This facilitates starting that specified operation without memory translation faults. In an embodiment, the copying includes, each time one of the memory address translations is updated on the processing core, copying the updated one of the memory address translations to the hardware accelerator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2011
    Publication date: September 20, 2012
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kattamuri Ekanadham, Hung Q. Le, Jose E. Moreira, Pratap C. Pattnaik
  • Publication number: 20120233381
    Abstract: A method and a corresponding apparatus provide for remapping for wear leveling of a memory (10). The method (300) is implemented as logic and includes the steps of receiving (305) a memory operation, the memory operation including a logical memory address (20); dividing the logical address into a logical block address portion (22), a logical line address portion (24), and a logical subline address portion (26); translating (315) the logical block address portion into a physical block address (23); selecting (320) a line remap key (33); applying the line remap key to the logical line address portion to produce a physical line address (25); producing (335) a physical subline address portion (26); and combining (340) the physical block, line, and subline address portions to produce a physical address (28) for the memory operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2009
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Inventors: Joseph A. Tucek, Eric A. Anderson
  • Publication number: 20120226888
    Abstract: Systems and method for memory management units (MMUs) configured to automatically pre-fill a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) with address translation entries expected to be used in the future, thereby reducing TLB miss rate and improving performance. The TLB may be pre-filled with translation entries, wherein addresses corresponding to the pre-fill may be selected based on predictions. Predictions may be derived from external devices, or based on stride values, wherein the stride values may be a predetermined constant or dynamically altered based on access patterns. Pre-filling the TLB may effectively remove latency involved in determining address translations for TLB misses from the critical path.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 13, 2012
    Publication date: September 6, 2012
    Applicant: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Bohuslav Rychlik, Thomas Andrew Sartorius, Michael William Morrow, Raymond P. Palma
  • Patent number: 8261267
    Abstract: A mapping data generator determines a virtual page number of a virtual page where an executable code in an object file is mapped. A virtual page manager manages a virtual page record containing the virtual page number, a first object ID corresponding to the virtual page number, and a detection flag indicative of existence of another virtual page record containing a second object ID identical with the first object ID. A machine page manager manages a machine page record containing the first object ID, and a machine page number to which the virtual page number is mapped. A sharable page detector determines whether a detection flag indicates existence of another virtual page record containing the first object ID and determines whether a machine page number has been set. A page mapper maps a set machine page number to the virtual page number of the access page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Noboru Iwamatsu, Naoki Nishiguchi
  • Publication number: 20120215979
    Abstract: A cache is provided, including a data array having a plurality of entries configured to store a plurality of different types of data, and a tag array having a plurality of entries and configured to store a tag of the data stored at a corresponding entry in the data array and further configured to store an identification of the type of data stored in the corresponding entry in the data array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2011
    Publication date: August 23, 2012
    Applicant: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
    Inventor: Douglas HUNT
  • Publication number: 20120210044
    Abstract: A partition adjunct is provided for a logical partition running above a hypervisor of a data processing system. The partition adjunct, which is a separate dispatchable partition from an instantiating logical partition, provides one or more services to the logical partition. A service request received from the logical partition is processed by the partition adjunct utilizing virtual address space donated to the partition adjunct from the logical partition. The partition adjunct and the logical partition share a common virtual address to real address page table, and context switching the current state machine from the logical partition to the partition adjunct occurs without invalidating or modifying state data of selected memory management and address translation hardware of the data processing system. In a hardware multithreaded system, the partition adjunct is dispatched on a single thread, while another thread continues to run in the logical partition initiating the service request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2012
    Publication date: August 16, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: William J. ARMSTRONG, Orran Y. KRIEGER, Michal OSTROWSKI, Randal C. SWANBERG
  • Publication number: 20120210092
    Abstract: A method or system for determining storage location of an isolation region based on a data region sizing specified by a host device. In one implementation, the isolation region comprises a set of storage locations required for isolation of or more data region of the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2011
    Publication date: August 16, 2012
    Applicant: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Timothy Richard Feldman
  • Publication number: 20120203950
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relating to improving address translation caching and/or input/output (I/O) cache performance in virtualized environments are described. In one embodiment, a hint provided by an endpoint device may be utilized to update information stored in an I/O cache. Such information may be utilized for implementation of a more efficient replacement policy in an embodiment. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2012
    Publication date: August 9, 2012
    Inventors: Mahesh Wagh, Jasmin Ajanovic
  • Patent number: 8239657
    Abstract: Address translation performance within a processor is improved by identifying an address that causes a boundary crossing between different pages in memory and linking address translation information associated with both memory pages. According to one embodiment of a processor, the processor comprises circuitry configured to recognize an access to a memory region crossing a page boundary between first and second memory pages. The circuitry is also configured to link address translation information associated with the first and second memory pages. Thus, responsive to a subsequent access the same memory region, the address translation information associated with the first and second memory pages is retrievable based on a single address translation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Brian Joseph Kopec, Victor Roberts Augsburg, James Norris Dieffenderfer, Thomas Andrew Sartorius
  • Publication number: 20120198205
    Abstract: Subject matter disclosed herein relates to techniques to perform transactions using a memory device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2011
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Applicant: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Sean Eilert
  • Publication number: 20120198176
    Abstract: A microprocessor includes a translation lookaside buffer, a request to load a page table entry into the microprocessor generated in response to a miss of a virtual address in the translation lookaside buffer, and a prefetch unit. The prefetch unit receives a physical address of a first cache line that includes the requested page table entry and responsively generates a request to prefetch into the microprocessor a second cache line that is the next physically sequential cache line to the first cache line.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2012
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Applicant: VIA TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Rodney E. Hooker, Colin Eddy
  • Publication number: 20120198122
    Abstract: A method for managing mappings of storage on a code cache for a processor. The method includes storing a plurality of guest address to native address mappings as entries in a conversion look aside buffer, wherein the entries indicate guest addresses that have corresponding converted native addresses stored within a code cache memory, and receiving a subsequent request for a guest address at the conversion look aside buffer. The conversion look aside buffer is indexed to determine whether there exists an entry that corresponds to the index, wherein the index comprises a tag and an offset that is used to identify the entry that corresponds to the index. Upon a hit on the tag, the corresponding entry is accessed to retrieve a pointer to the code cache memory corresponding block of converted native instructions. The corresponding block of converted native instructions are fetched from the code cache memory for execution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2012
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Applicant: SOFT MACHINES, INC.
    Inventor: Mohammad Abdallah
  • Patent number: 8234407
    Abstract: A system comprising a compute node and coupled network adapter (NA) that allows the NA to directly use CPU virtual addresses without pinning pages in system memory. The NA performs memory accesses in response to requests from various sources. Each request source is assigned to context. Each context has a descriptor that controls the address translation performed by the NA. When the CPU wants to update translation information it sends a synchronization request to the NA that causes the NA to stop fetching a category of requests associated with the information update. The category may be requests associated with a context or a page address. Once the NA determines that all the fetched requests in the category have completed it notifies the CPU and the CPU performs the information update. Once the update is complete, the CPU clears the synchronization request and the NA starts fetching requests in the category.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Oracle America, Inc.
    Inventors: Rabin A. Sugumar, Robert W. Wittosch, Bjørn Dag Johnsen, William M. Ortega
  • Publication number: 20120185668
    Abstract: The memory management unit includes a page table correlating respective virtual addresses with corresponding physical addresses, first translation lookaside buffer (TLB) lookup logic that provides one of a first virtual address and a first physical address according to whether a page number of the first virtual address matches a frame number of the first physical address, a first queue buffer that stores and provides the first virtual address, and second TLB lookup logic that determines and provides a first page physical address using the first virtual address to access the page table when the page number of the first virtual address does not match the frame number of the first physical address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2011
    Publication date: July 19, 2012
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Young Pyo Joo
  • Publication number: 20120179892
    Abstract: A system for filtering received data units comprises a memory structure adapted to store a plurality of P tables, each table comprising a plurality of filter-keys and corresponding indices, each filter-key comprising one or more key-bits each corresponding to a filter configurable by a corresponding filter configuration value; and at least one processing element connected to the memory structure and comprising a digesting module adapted to generate the one or more key-bits of each of the filter-keys of the tables by splitting the corresponding filter configuration value into P configuration-pieces each having a number of bits, and to use each configuration-piece as a first index for setting a corresponding key-bit in the corresponding table; and a filtering module adapted to receive and split the data units into P data-pieces each having the number of bits, for each data-piece use the data-piece as a second index for reading the corresponding filter-key from the corresponding table, and generate a pass-indica
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Publication date: July 12, 2012
    Applicant: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Marius-Aurel Balanica
  • Publication number: 20120173842
    Abstract: An approach is provided in a hypervised computer system where a page table request is at an operating system running in the hypervised computer system. The operating system determines whether the page table request requires the hypervisor to process. If the determination reveals that the page table request requires the hypervisor, then the hypervisor is used to handle the request. However, if the determination reveals that the page table request does not require the hypervisor, then an indicator included in a page table entry corresponding to the request is read to determine if the page table entry is controlled by the operating system or the hypervisor. The operating system is able to update the page table entry if the indicator identifies the page table entry as being operating system controlled.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2011
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Bradly George Frey, Michal Ostrowski, Andrew Henry Wottreng
  • Publication number: 20120173843
    Abstract: A system may include a storage medium with multiple entries, each entry of the configured to store a respective address of a memory write request that has not yet been committed to memory. The system may further include a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) including a multiple TLB entries, each TLB entry having an associated address field and associated one or more hazard status fields. The address field may store a translated physical memory address. Each hazard status field may correspond to a respective storage entry of the storage medium, and contain respective information indicating whether the translated physical memory address matches the respective address in the respective storage entry. The system may also include hazard detection logic to receive the respective information from the TLB, and use the respective information to prevent a hazard from occurring when the translated physical memory address is associated with a memory write request that has not yet been committed to memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2011
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Inventor: Chetan C. Kamdar
  • Publication number: 20120166757
    Abstract: A method begins by a processing module receiving a file retrieval request for a file, wherein the file includes one or more data regions, and wherein a data region of the one or more data regions is divided into a plurality of data segments and stored as a plurality of sets of encoded data slices in a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory. The method continues with the processing module retrieving a segment allocation table (SAT), wherein a SAT entry of a plurality of SAT entries includes information regarding storing the data region in the DSN memory and a segmentation scheme regarding the dividing of the data region into the plurality of data segments. The method continues with the processing module identifying the plurality of sets of encoded data slices and retrieving at least a sufficient number of the plurality of sets of encoded data slices to regenerate the data region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2011
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Applicant: CLEVERSAFE, INC.
    Inventors: Ilya Volvovski, Andrew Baptist, Wesley Leggette, Jason K. Resch
  • Publication number: 20120166703
    Abstract: A method for caching attribute data for matching attributes with physical addresses. The method includes storing a plurality of attribute entries in a memory, wherein the memory is configured to provide at least one attribute entry when accessed with a physical address, and wherein the attribute entry provided describes characteristics of the physical address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2011
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Inventors: H. Peter Anvin, Guillermo J. Rozas, Alexander Klaiber, John P. Banning
  • Publication number: 20120159056
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for power filtering in a Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB) are described. In the method and apparatus, power consumption reduction is achieved by suppressing physical address (PA) reads from random access memory (RAM) if the previously translated linear address (LA), or virtual address (VA), is the same as the currently requested LA. To provide the correct translation, the output of the TLB is maintained if the previously translated LA and the LA currently requested for translation are the same.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2010
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Applicant: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
    Inventors: Deepika Kapil, David Hugh McIntyre
  • Publication number: 20120159116
    Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus for processing a remote page fault included in an optional local node within a cluster system configuring a large integration memory (CVM) by integrating individual memories of a plurality of nodes. The apparatus includes a memory including a CVM-map, a node memory information table, a virtual memory area, and a CVM page table, and a main controller mapping the large integration memory to an address space of a process when a user process requests memory allocation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2011
    Publication date: June 21, 2012
    Applicant: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
    Inventors: Eun Ji LIM, Gyu II Cha, Young Ho Kim, Dong Jae Kang, Sung In Jung
  • Publication number: 20120139928
    Abstract: A data packer of an input/output hub of a computer system packs and formats write data that is supplied to it before the write data is written into a memory unit of the computer system. More particularly, the data packer accumulates write data received from lower bandwidth clients for delivery to a high bandwidth memory interface. Also, the data packer aligns the write data, so that when the write data is read out from the write data packer, no further alignment is needed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2012
    Publication date: June 7, 2012
    Applicant: NVIDIA Corporation
    Inventors: Raymond Hoi Man WONG, Samuel Hammond Duncan, Lukito Muliadi, Madhukiran V. Swarna
  • Publication number: 20120144153
    Abstract: A translation table entry contains a change recording override field for controlling whether a change bit is to be set on a store or not. Each 4K byte block of main storage has an associated storage key comprising a change bit. The change recording override field controls whether the change bit of the storage key associated with the desired 4K byte block of main storage is set to 1 for a store operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2012
    Publication date: June 7, 2012
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Dan F. Greiner, Lisa C. Heller, Damian L. Osisek, Erwin Pfeffer, Timothy J. Slegel, Charles F. Webb
  • Publication number: 20120144154
    Abstract: Storing translation lookaside buffer (TLB) entries are in a TLB1 at the processor. The TLB1 includes entries associated with main storage accesses of programs executing in a guest mode in a current zone and entries associated with main storage accesses of firmware executing in a host mode. A quiesce interruption request is received at the processor that includes a requesting zone indicator. The processor is either executing in the host mode and has no zone or in the guest mode with the current zone. The requesting zone indicator and the contents of a programmable filtering register that indicates exceptions to filtering performed by the processor is used to determine if filtering should be performed. The quiesce interruption request may be filtered based on the requesting zone indicator even after the mode switches from the guest mode to the host mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2012
    Publication date: June 7, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Lisa C. Heller, Harald Boehm, Ute Gaertner, Timothy J. Slegel, Jennifer A. Navarro
  • Patent number: 8195914
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a computer system is disclosed. The computer system includes a processor, a chipset coupled to the processor and a memory coupled to the chipset. The chipset translates partitioned virtual machine memory addresses received from the processor to page level addresses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Clifford D. Hall, Randolph L. Campbell
  • Patent number: 8195916
    Abstract: An apparatus and method to translate virtual addresses to physical addresses in a base plus offset addressing mode are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method includes performing a first translation lookaside buffer (TLB) lookup based on a base address value to retrieve a speculative physical address. While performing the TLB lookup based on the base address value, the base address value is added to an offset value to generate an effective address value. The method also includes performing a comparison of the base address value and the effective address value based on a variable page size to determine whether the speculative physical address corresponds to the effective address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Paul Douglas Bassett, Ajay Anant Ingle, Sujat Jamil, Lucian Codrescu, Muhammad Ahmed
  • Publication number: 20120137105
    Abstract: A memory system comprises a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) configured to receive a virtual address and to search for a TLB entry matching the virtual address, and a translation information buffer (TIB) configured to be connected to the TLB and determine whether a physical address corresponding to the virtual address falls into a continuous mapping area if the TLB entry matching the virtual address is not found.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Publication date: May 31, 2012
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Hyun Sun Ahn
  • Publication number: 20120137106
    Abstract: What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables are obtained. An index portion of the virtual address is used to reference an entry in the translation table. If a format control field contained in the translation table entry is enabled, the table entry contains a frame address of a large block of data of at least 1M byte in size. The frame address is then combined with an offset portion of the virtual address to form the translated address of a small 4K byte block of data in main storage or memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2011
    Publication date: May 31, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Dan F. Greiner, Lisa C. Heller, Damian L. Osisek, Erwin Pfeffer, Timothy J. Slegel, Charles F. Webb
  • Publication number: 20120137079
    Abstract: In a system for controlling cache coherency of a multiprocessor system in which a plurality of processors share a system memory, each of the plurality of processors including a cache and a TLB, the processor includes a TLB controller including a TLB search unit that performs a TLB search and a coherency handler that performs TLB registration information processing when no hit occurs in the TLB search and a TLB interrupt occurs. The coherency handler includes a TLB replacement handler that searches a page table in the system memory and that replaces the TLB registration information, a TLB miss exception handling unit, and a storage exception handling unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2011
    Publication date: May 31, 2012
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Makoto Ueda
  • Publication number: 20120131307
    Abstract: A data structure for enforcing consistent per-physical page cacheability attributes is disclosed. The data structure is used with a method for enforcing consistent per-physical page cacheability attributes, which maintains memory coherency within a processor addressing memory, such as by comparing a desired cacheability attribute of a physical page address in a PTE against an authoritative table that indicates the current cacheability status. This comparison can be made at the time the PTE is inserted into a TLB. When the comparison detects a mismatch between the desired cacheability attribute of the page and the page's current cacheability status, corrective action can be taken to transition the page into the desired cacheability state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2012
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Inventors: Alexander C. Klaiber, David Dunn
  • Publication number: 20120124271
    Abstract: A method and system for location of memory management translations in an emulated processor. The method includes: detecting a page miss of a process on an emulated processor, wherein the emulated processor software refills a translation lookaside buffer (TLB); locating a secondary data structure in memory; fetching a missing translation from a secondary data structure in memory; and inserting the missing translation in a guest translation lookaside buffer; wherein the steps are carried out in a trap handler in the emulated environment. The steps may be carried out in the emulated processor or in a host server of the emulated processor instead of invoking a guest operating system trap handler.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Matthew L. Evans
  • Publication number: 20120124329
    Abstract: A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) includes a data array including memory storage cells arranged to form a number of entries. Each entry may store a translated physical address. The data array also includes an integrated multiplexer that may be coupled to an output of the data array. The integrated multiplexer may include a respective first bit select transistor that may be coupled between an output of each of at least some of the memory storage cells and the output of the data array. In addition, the integrated multiplexer may bit-wise select as the output of the data array, one of the translated physical address or another address provided to the data array from external to the TLB in response to a given entry being accessed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2011
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventor: Edward M. McCombs
  • Publication number: 20120124326
    Abstract: A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) includes a data array including a number of memory storage cells arranged to form a plurality of entries. The memory storage cells of each entry may be configured to store the respective bits of a translated physical address. The data array further includes a number of sense amplifiers, each coupled to a respective memory storage cell. In response to a read access to a given entry, the sense amplifiers corresponding to the memory storage cells of the given entry may be configured to output respective bit representations of the translated physical address. The TLB also includes a compare unit coupled to the sense amplifier outputs and configured to perform a bit-wise compare of each bit representation of the translated physical address with a corresponding respective bit of each of a plurality of additional addresses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2011
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventor: Edward M. McCombs
  • Publication number: 20120124328
    Abstract: A processor includes a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) including a data array and a compare unit. The data array includes a number of entries each configured to store a respective translated physical address. In response to a read access to a given entry of the TLB, the data array is configured to output within a particular clock cycle, the respective translated physical address stored in the given entry. In addition the compare unit may be configured to compare the respective translated physical address output by the data array with a number of additional addresses. The compare unit may also be configured to provide a hit indication for each of the additional addresses within the particular clock cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2011
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventors: Edward M. McCombs, Chetan C. Kamdar, William V. Miller
  • Publication number: 20120124327
    Abstract: A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) includes a data array unit with a data array having a plurality of entries. Each entry may store a respective translated physical address and an address selection indication. The address selection indication may select as an output of the data array unit one of the respective translated physical address stored within a particular entry or another address provided to the data array unit in response to the particular entry being read.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2011
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventor: Edward M. McCombs
  • Publication number: 20120124325
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for controlling a translation lookaside buffer in connection with the execution of an atomic instruction. The method comprises identifying load instructions within a plurality of instructions to be executed, and placing the identified load instructions in a queue prior to execution. An atomic instruction identified in the queue is prevented from executing until the atomic instruction is the oldest instruction in the queue. The apparatus comprises a queue and a translation lookaside buffer. The queue is adapted to: identify an atomic instruction within a plurality of instructions to be executed; prevent execution of the atomic instruction until it is the oldest instruction in the queue; and send a virtual address corresponding to the atomic instruction and an atomic load signal in response to determining that the atomic instruction is the oldest instruction in the queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2010
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventors: David Kaplan, Christopher D. Bryant, Stephen P. Thompson
  • Publication number: 20120117356
    Abstract: An instruction is provided to perform invalidation of an instruction specified range of segment table entries or region table entries. The instruction can be implemented by software emulation, hardware, firmware or some combination thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2012
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Timothy J. Slegel, Lisa C. Heller, Erwin F. Pfeffer, Kenneth E. Plambeck
  • Publication number: 20120117301
    Abstract: Various methods and apparatus are described for communicating transactions between one or more initiator IP cores and one or more target IP cores coupled to an interconnect. A centralized Memory Management logic Unit (MMU) is located in the interconnect for virtualization and sharing of integrated circuit resources including target cores between the one or more initiator IP cores. A master translation look aside buffer (TLB) stores virtualization and sharing information in the entries of the master TLB. A set of two or more translation look aside buffers (TLBs) locally store virtualization and sharing information replicated from the master TLB. Logic in the MMU or other software updates the virtualization and sharing information replicated from the master TLB in the entries of one or more of the set of local TLBs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: SONICS, INC.
    Inventor: Drew E. Wingard
  • Publication number: 20120110299
    Abstract: A processor including logic to execute an instruction to synchronize a mapping from a physical address of a guest of a virtualization based system (guest physical address) to a physical address of the host of the virtualization based system (host physical address), and stored in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB), with a corresponding mapping stored in an extended paging table (EPT) of the virtualization based system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2012
    Publication date: May 3, 2012
    Inventors: Steven M. Bennett, Andrew V. Anderson, Gilbert Neiger, Richard Uhlig, Dion Rodgers, Rajesh Madukkaraumukumana, Camron Rust, Sebastian Schoenberg
  • Publication number: 20120102296
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a TLB is partitioned into regions. The TLB may be set associative, and each section may include a portion of the locations in each way of the set associative memory. The TLB may reserve at least one of the sections for access by a subset of the request sources that use the TLB. For requests from the subset, the reserved section may be used and a location in the reserved section may be allocated to store a translation for a request from the subset that misses in the TLB. For requests for other request sources, the non-reserved section or sections may be used. In one embodiment, each way of the reserved section may be assigned to a different one of the request sources in the subset.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Publication date: April 26, 2012
    Inventor: Joseph A. Petolino, JR.
  • Patent number: 8161246
    Abstract: A microprocessor includes a cache memory, a load unit, and a prefetch unit, coupled to the load unit. The load unit is configured to receive a load request that includes an indicator that the load request is loading a page table entry. The prefetch unit is configured to receive from the load unit a physical address of a first cache line that includes the page table entry specified by the load request. The prefetch unit is further configured to responsively generate a request to prefetch into the cache memory a second cache line. The second cache line is the next physically sequential cache line to the first cache line. In an alternate embodiment, the second cache line is the previous physically sequential cache line to the first cache line rather than the next physically sequential cache line to the first cache line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: VIA Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Rodney E. Hooker, Colin Eddy
  • Publication number: 20120089809
    Abstract: A method begins by a processing module receiving an encoded data slice to store and determining a slice length of the encoded data slice. The method continues with the processing module comparing the slice length to a plurality of bin widths, wherein each of the plurality of bin widths represents a fixed storage width of a plurality of memory bins within each of a plurality of memory containers, wherein a storage unit includes the plurality of memory containers. The method continues with the processing module selecting one of the plurality of memory containers based on the comparing to produce a selected memory container, identifying an available bin of the plurality of bins of the selected memory container, and storing the encoded data slice in the available bin.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2011
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Applicant: Cleversafe, Inc.
    Inventors: JASON K. RESCH, SIYUAN MA
  • Publication number: 20120089810
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus for formatting and preselecting trace data, and includes a trace message generator, an address checker, and a memory connected to the trace message generator and address checker. The trace message generator is configured to receive an address and associated data and generate a trace message with the associated data for the received address. The address checker is configured to receive the address, check the received address with the aid of the memory, and generate an output signal that indicates whether or not the trace message generated for the address is intended to be stored. The memory is configured to receive the trace message generated by the trace message generator, receive the output signal generated by the address checker, and store the received trace message if the output signal indicates that the trace message is intended to be stored.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2011
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Applicant: Infineon Technologies AG
    Inventors: Albrecht Mayer, Harry Siebert
  • Publication number: 20120089808
    Abstract: A multiprocessor using a shared virtual memory (SVM) is provided. The multiprocessor includes a plurality of processing cores and a memory manager configured to transform a virtual address into a physical address to allow a processing core to access a memory region corresponding to the physical address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Inventors: Choon-Ki Jang, Jaejin Lee, Soo-Jung Ryu, Bernhard Egger, Yoon-Jin Kim, Woong Seo, Young-Chul Cho
  • Publication number: 20120079164
    Abstract: A processor includes a first translation look-aside buffer to support a guest operating mode. A second translation look-aside buffer supports a root operating mode. Hardware resources support the guest operating mode as controlled by guest mode control registers defining guest context. The guest context is used by the hardware resources to access the first translation look-aside buffer to translate a guest virtual address to a guest physical address. The hardware resources access the second translation look-aside buffer to translate the guest physical address to a physical address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2010
    Publication date: March 29, 2012
    Inventor: JAMES ROBERT HOWARD HAKEWILL
  • Publication number: 20120079232
    Abstract: An apparatus, method, machine-readable medium, and system are disclosed. In one embodiment the apparatus is a micro-page table engine that includes logic that is capable of receiving a memory page request for a page in global memory address space. The apparatus also includes a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) that is capable of storing one or more memory page address translations. Additionally, the apparatus also has a page miss handler capable of performing a micro physical address lookup in a page miss handler tag table in response to the TLB not storing the memory page address translation for the page of memory referenced by the memory page request. The apparatus also includes memory management logic that is capable of managing the page miss handler tag table entries. The micro-page table engine allows the TLB to be an agent that determines whether data in a two-level memory hierarchy is in a hot region of memory or in a cold region of memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2010
    Publication date: March 29, 2012
    Inventors: Glenn Hinton, Madhavan Parthasarathy, Rajesh Parthasarathy, Muthukumar Swaminathan, Raj Ramanujan, David Zimmerman, Larry O. Smith, Adrian C. Moga, Scott J. Cape, Wayne A. Downer, Robert S. Chappell
  • Patent number: 8145874
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes, comparing, during a write back stage at an execution unit, a write identifier associated with a result to be written to a register file from execution of a first instruction to a read identifier associated with a second instruction at an execution pipeline within an interleaved multi-threaded (IMT) processor having multiple execution units. When the write identifier matches the read identifier, the method further includes storing the result at a local memory of the execution unit for use by the execution unit in the subsequent read stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Suresh Venkumahanti, Lucian Codrescu, Lin Wang
  • Publication number: 20120072697
    Abstract: A system and method for identifying a TLB entry having a physical address that is within a specified range are disclosed. The method includes obtaining a tentative TLB entry from a page table entry and accessing a physical address associated with the tentative TLB entry. The method further includes comparing the physical address of the tentative TLB entry with a predetermined range of addresses. If the physical address is within the finite range of addresses, an exception is invoked. In response to the exception, the physical address and/or an attribute of the tentative TLB entry can be modified. The tentative TLB entry can then be stored in a TLB.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2011
    Publication date: March 22, 2012
    Inventors: Guillermo Rozas, Alexander Klaiber, H. Peter Anvin, David Dunn
  • Publication number: 20120072698
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a memory management device includes a history management unit, an address translation table, an address management unit, and a data management unit. The history management unit manages an access history for data stored in a nonvolatile semiconductor memory. The address translation table includes a translation table of a logical address and a physical address corresponding to the data. The address management unit specifies, based on the access history, second data to be accessed after access to first data being stored in the nonvolatile semiconductor memory, and registers a second physical address corresponding to the second data in the address translation table in association with a first logical address corresponding to the first data. The data management unit reads out the second data from the nonvolatile semiconductor memory to a buffer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2011
    Publication date: March 22, 2012
    Inventors: Tsutomu UNESAKI, Yoshiyuki ENDO