SHARING RESOURCES IN A MULTI-CONTEXT COMPUTING SYSTEM

• US 20160139950A1
• Filed: 11/13/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Cavium, LLC (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Snyder, Wilson P. II, Ogale, Varada, Kujtkowski, Anna, Ma, Albert
• Granted Patent: US 10,303,514 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method of providing quality of service (QoS) to at least one resource of a hardware processor includes providing, in a memory of the hardware processor, a context including at least one quality of service parameter and allocating access to the at least one resource of the hardware processor based on the quality of service parameter of the context, a device identifier, a virtual machine identifier, and the context.

Claims

1. A method of providing quality of service to at least one resource of a hardware processor, the method comprising:

providing, in a memory of the hardware processor, a context including at least one quality of service parameter; and

allocating access to the at least one resource of the hardware processor based on the quality of service parameter of the context, a device identifier, a virtual machine identifier, and the context.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one resource is at least one of a cache and a bus.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the quality of service parameter is at least one of a priority information parameter and a partition information parameter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein allocating access to the at least one resource includes at least one of:

providing access to the at least one resource having a quality of service parameter indicating a priority above a threshold,

refusing access to the at least one resource having a quality of service parameter indicating a priority below a threshold,

partitioning at least one of lanes and banks of the at least one resource spatially,

time multiplexing the at least one resource, and

providing access to all of the at least one resource based on its context.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein allocating access to the at least one resource of the hardware processor is further based on a bitmask stored in a memory of the hardware processor.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the at least one resource is a cache, and

allocating access to the at least one resource by allowing access to a particular bank of the cache, the bank of the cache chosen based on the bitmask.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a particular request of a plurality of requests for virtual memory from a device; and

translating the particular request to the context stored in the memory of the hardware processor;

wherein allocating access to the at least one resource includes prioritizing the particular request among the plurality of requests based on the quality of service parameter of the context.

8. A system for of providing quality of service to at least one resource of a hardware processor, the system comprising:

a memory of the hardware processor providing a context including at least one quality of service parameter; and

a quality of service module configured to allocate access to the at least one resource of the hardware processor based on the quality of service parameter of the context, a device identifier, a virtual machine identifier, and the context.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one resource is at least one of a cache and a bus.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the quality of service parameter is at least one of a priority information parameter and a partition information parameter.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein allocating access to the at least one resource includes at least one of:

providing access to the at least one resource having a quality of service parameter indicating a priority above a threshold,

refusing access to the at least one resource having a quality of service parameter indicating a priority below a threshold,

partitioning at least one of lanes and banks of the at least one resource spatially,

time multiplexing the at least one resource, and

providing access to all of the at least one resource based on its context.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein allocating access to the at least one resource of the hardware processor is further based on a bitmask stored in a memory of the hardware processor.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the at least one resource is a cache, and

the quality of service module is further configured to partition access to the at least one resource by allowing access to a particular bank of the cache, the bank of the cache chosen based on the bitmask.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a memory management module configured to receive a particular request of a plurality of requests for virtual memory from a device and translate the particular request to the context stored in the memory of the hardware processor;

wherein the quality of service module is further configured to partition access to the at least one resource by prioritizing the particular request among the plurality of requests based on the quality of service parameter of the context.