Method and apparatus for managing a spin transfer torque memory
First Claim
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1. An apparatus comprising:
- a memory subsystem including at least one spin transfer torque (STT) memory, the STT memory arranged into one or more entries and associated with a scrubbing interval; and
a scrub engine to ensure that the entries of the STT contain valid data, the scrub engine including analysis and processing logic to determine, for a given entry, whether the scrubbing interval has elapsed and, if so, then to invalidate the given entry or re-fetch data for the given entry from a source and, if the scrubbing interval has not elapsed, then to perform error detection and/or correction on the given entry.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for scrubbing spin transfer torque (STT) memory. For example, one embodiment of a apparatus comprises: a memory subsystem including at least one spin transfer torque (STT) memory, the STT memory arranged into one or more entries; and a scrub engine to ensure that the entries of the STT contain valid data, the scrub engine including analysis and processing logic to determine, for each entry, whether a specified scrubbing interval has expired and, if so, then to invalidate the entry or re-fetch data for the entry from a source and, if the scrubbing interval has not expired, then to perform error detection and/or correction on the entry.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a memory subsystem including at least one spin transfer torque (STT) memory, the STT memory arranged into one or more entries and associated with a scrubbing interval; and a scrub engine to ensure that the entries of the STT contain valid data, the scrub engine including analysis and processing logic to determine, for a given entry, whether the scrubbing interval has elapsed and, if so, then to invalidate the given entry or re-fetch data for the given entry from a source and, if the scrubbing interval has not elapsed, then to perform error detection and/or correction on the given entry. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method implemented within a memory subsystem including at least one spin transfer torque (STT) memory, the STT memory arranged into one or more entries, the method comprising:
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specifying a scrubbing interval based, at least in part, on an error rate of the STT memory; determining, for a given entry of the STT memory, whether the specified scrubbing interval has elapsed; if the specified scrubbing interval has elapsed, then invalidating the given entry or re-fetching data for the given entry from a source; and if the scrubbing interval has not elapsed, then performing error detection and/or correction on the given entry. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification