Patents by Inventor Steven Kenneth Saunders

Steven Kenneth Saunders has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Methods and apparatus for increasing the efficiency of a higher level cache by selectively performing writes to the higher level cache
    Patent number: 6351796
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for storing data in a multi-level memory hierarchy having at least a lower level cache and a higher level cache. Relevancy information is maintained for various data values stored in the lower level cache, the relevancy information indicating whether the various data values stored in the lower level cache, if lost, could only be generated from corresponding data stored in the higher level cache. If one of the various data values stored in the lower level cache is to be updated, a determination as to whether corresponding data should be stored in the higher level cache is based at least in part on 1) the status of the relevancy information corresponding to the one of the various data values stored in the lower level cache which is to be updated, and 2) whether the updated value which is to be written into the lower level cache matches one or more select data value patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2002
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventors: James E McCormick, Jr., Steven Kenneth Saunders