Method and system for accessing indirect memories

• US 7,930,689 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2005
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Cabillic, Gilbert, Chauvel, Gerard, Lesot, Jean-Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente; Emerson C
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLS, PAUL V
• Application Number:
  US11/186,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20060026370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,098 Days
• Field of Search: 717/108, 717/116, 717/165, 717/139, 717/319, 717/162
• US Class Current: 717/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0802 Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1081 for peripheral access to main memory, e.g. direct memory access [DMA]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/6012 of operating mode, e.g. cache mode or local memory mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30174 for non-native instruction set, e.g. Javabyte, legacy code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45504 Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems, methods, and storage media for accessing indirect memory in Java applications are provided. In some embodiments, a storage medium is provided that comprises Java application software that performs one or more operations on an indirect memory of a device. The software comprises instructions that create an instance of a Java class representing the indirect memory, and instructions that access a memory element of the indirect memory using an element unique identifier (“euid”) of the memory element. Other embodiments provide a method for accessing memory elements of a device that comprises creating an instance of a Java class representing the memory elements, and accessing a memory element of the memory elements using an element unique identifier (“euid”) of the memory element, wherein the memory elements are not mapped into the data memory space of the processor.

Claims

1. A storage medium comprising Java application software that performs one or more operations on an indirect memory, the software comprising:

Java instructions that create an instance of a Java class representing the indirect memory, wherein the indirect memory is memory of a device that is not mapped into a memory space of a processor executing the Java application software;

Java instructions that access a memory element of the indirect memory, wherein the indirect memory comprises a contiguous range of memory elements comprising the memory element;

the Java instructions that create comprise Java instructions that map an array onto the contiguous range, wherein the Java instructions that map use an element unique identifier of an initial memory element of the contiguous range; and

the Java instructions that access comprise Java instructions that use a Java array operation to access the memory element using an array index corresponding to a relative location of the memory element in the contiguous range.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the Java array operation is translated to a Java array bytecode that is extended in a Java virtual machine to generate a code sequence that accesses the memory element in the indirect memory.

3. A method for performing one or more operations on a indirect memory from Java application software executing on a Java virtual machine (JVM) executing on a processor, the method comprising:

creating an instance of a Java class representing the indirect memory, wherein the indirect memory is memory of a device that is not mapped into a memory space of the processor;

accessing a memory element of the indirect memory using Java instructions, wherein the indirect memory comprises a contiguous range of memory elements comprising the memory element;

creating an instance comprises mapping an array onto the contiguous range using an element unique identifier of an initial memory element of the contiguous range; and

accessing a memory element comprises using a Java array operation to access the memory element with an array index corresponding to a relative location of the memory element in the contiguous range.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the Java array operation is translated to a Java array bytecode that is extended in the JVM to generate a code sequence that accesses the memory element in the indirect memory.

5. A system, comprising:

a processor;

an indirect memory, wherein the indirect memory is memory of a device coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is not mapped into a memory space of the processor;

a Java virtual machine (JVM) configured to execute on the processor; and

a Java application configured to execute on the JVM;

wherein an instance of a Java class is created to represent the indirect memory; and

wherein the Java application is configured to access a memory element of the indirect memory using Java instructions, wherein;

the indirect memory comprises a plurality of contiguous memory elements, the contiguous memory element'"'"'s comprising the memory element;

the JVM comprises a Java array bytecode configured to access the memory element;

the Java class is configured to map an array onto the plurality of contiguous memory elements using an element unique identifier of an initial memory element of the plurality of contiguous memory elements; and

the Java application is configured to use a Java array operation to access the memory element, wherein an array index corresponding to a relative location of the memory element in the plurality of contiguous memory elements is used, wherein the Java array operation is translated to the Java array bytecode by a compiler.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the Java array bytecode generates a code sequence that accesses the memory element in the indirect memory.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the system comprises a mobile device.