Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Secondary prefetch circuit that reports coverage to a primary prefetch circuit to limit prefetching by primary prefetch circuit
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Application No.: US16832893Application Date: 2020-03-27
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Publication No.: US11176045B2Publication Date: 2021-11-16
- Inventor: Stephan G. Meier , Tyler J. Huberty , Nikhil Gupta
- Applicant: Apple Inc.
- Applicant Address: US CA Cupertino
- Assignee: Apple Inc.
- Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Cupertino
- Agency: Kowert, Hood, Munyon, Rankin & Goetzel, P.C.
- Agent Lawrence J. Merkel
- Main IPC: G06F12/00
- IPC: G06F12/00 ; G06F12/0862 ; G06F9/38

Abstract:
In an embodiment, a processor includes a plurality of prefetch circuits configured to prefetch data into a data cache. A primary prefetch circuit may be configured to generate first prefetch requests in response to a demand access, and may be configured to invoke a second prefetch circuit in response to the demand access. The second prefetch circuit may implement a different prefetch mechanism than the first prefetch circuit. If the second prefetch circuit reaches a threshold confidence level in prefetching for the demand access, the second prefetch circuit may communicate an indication to the primary prefetch circuit. The primary prefetch circuit may reduce a number of prefetch requests generated for the demand access responsive to the communication from the second prefetch circuit.
Public/Granted literature
Information query