METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CACHE CONTROL
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- responsive lo a processor having changed from a first operating point to a second operating point, selectively altering power of one or more ways of a cache memory; and
processing one or more instructions in the processor subsequent to altering power of the one or more ways of the cache memory, wherein said processing includes accessing one or more ways of the cache memory from which power was altered.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for dynamically controlling a cache size is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes changing an operating point of a processor from a first operating point to a second operating point, and selectively removing power from one or more ways of a cache memory responsive to changing the operating point. The method further includes processing one or more instructions in the processor subsequent to removing power from the one or more ways of the cache memory, wherein said processing includes accessing one or more ways of the cache memory from which power was not removed.
128 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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responsive lo a processor having changed from a first operating point to a second operating point, selectively altering power of one or more ways of a cache memory; and processing one or more instructions in the processor subsequent to altering power of the one or more ways of the cache memory, wherein said processing includes accessing one or more ways of the cache memory from which power was altered. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A processor comprising:
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a power management unit configured to selectively alter power of a first subset of the plurality of ways of a cache memory responsive to at least one execution unit changing an operating point from a first operating point to a second operating point; and wherein the at least one execution unit of the processor is configured to. subsequent to selectively altering power of the first subset of the plurality of ways, access one or more ways of a second subset of the plurality of ways from which power was altered. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method comprising:
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calculating a sum of a first threshold value and a second threshold value; comparing a workload indicator value to first the threshold value and the second threshold value; selectively removing power from a subset of a plurality of ways of a cache memory if a workload indicator value of a processor is less than a first threshold value; and powering on any previously powered down ways of the cache memory if the workload indicator value is greater than a second threshold; wherein power to ways of the cache memory is altered if the workload indicator value is greater than the first threshold value and less than the second threshold. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 31)
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26. A method comprising:
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changing a performance state of a processor from a first performance state to a second performance state, wherein the first performance state comprises operating a core of the processor at a first voltage and a first clock frequency, and wherein the second performance state comprises operating the core at a second voltage less than the first voltage and a second clock frequency less than the first clock frequency; selectively removing power from one or more ways of a cache memory responsive to changing the performance state; and processing one or more instructions in the core of the processor subsequent to removing power from the one or more ways of the cache memory, wherein said processing includes the core accessing one or more ways of the cache memory from which power was not removed. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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30. A computer readable medium comprising a data structure which is operated upon by a program executable on a computer system, the program operating on the data structure to perform a portion of a process to fabricate an integrated circuit including circuitry described by the data structure, the circuitry described in the data structure including:
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a power management unit configured to selectively alter power of a first subset of the plurality of ways of a cache memory responsive to at least one execution unit changing an operating point from a first operating point to a second operating point; and wherein the at least one execution unit is configured to, subsequent to selectively altering power of the first subset of the plurality of ways, access one or more ways of a second subset of the plurality of ways from which power was altered.
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Specification