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Jason F. Cantin

Jason F. Cantin, Austin, TX US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090319726Efficient Region Coherence Protocol for Clustered Shared-Memory Multiprocessor Systems - A system and method of a region coherence protocol for use in Region Coherence Arrays (RCAs) deployed in clustered shared-memory multiprocessor systems which optimize cache-to-cache transfers by allowing broadcast memory requests to be provided to only a portion of a clustered shared-memory multiprocessor system. Interconnect hierarchy levels can be devised for logical groups of processors, processors on the same chip, processors on chips aggregated into a multichip module, multichip modules on the same printed circuit board, and for processors on other printed circuit boards or in other cabinets. The present region coherence protocol includes, for example, one bit per level of interconnect hierarchy, such that the one bit has a value of “1” to indicate that there may be processors caching copies of lines from the region at that level of the interconnect hierarchy, and the one bit has a value of “0” to indicate that there are no cached copies of any lines from the region at that respective level of the interconnect hierarchy.12-24-2009
20090327619Access Speculation Predictor with Predictions Based on Memory Region Prior Requestor Tag Information - An access speculation predictor may predict whether to perform speculative retrieval of data for a data request from a main memory based on whether or not a current requestor tag matches a previous requestor tag. In particular, a first address and a first requester tag may be extracted from a first data request and a finite state machine (FSM) of a memory controller may be selected whose memory region includes the first address. A second requester tag, that identifies a previous requester that attempted to access the memory region association with the selected FSM, may be retrieved from a register associated with the selected FSM and compared to the first requester tag. Speculatively retrieving the data for the first data request from a main memory may be controlled based on results of the comparison of the first requester tag to the second requester tag.12-31-2009
20100005242Efficient Processing of Data Requests With The Aid Of A Region Cache - A method and system for configuring a cache memory system in order to efficiently process processor requests. A group of cache elements, which include a Region Cache, a Region Coherence Array, and a lowest level cache, is configured based on a tradeoff of latency and power consumption requirements. A selected cache configuration differs from other feasible configurations in the order in which cache elements are accessed relative to each other. The Region Cache is employed in a number of configurations to reduce the power consumption, latency, and bandwidth requirements of the Region Coherence Array. The Region Cache is accessed by processor requests before (or in parallel with) the larger Region Coherence Array, providing the region coherence state and power efficiently to requests that hit in the Region Cache.01-07-2010
20100023698Enhanced Coherency Tracking with Implementation of Region Victim Hash for Region Coherence Arrays - A method and system for precisely tracking lines evicted from a region coherence array (RCA) without requiring eviction of the lines from a processor's cache hierarchy. The RCA is a set-associative array which contains region entries consisting of a region address tag, a set of bits for the region coherence state, and a line-count for tracking the number of region lines cached by the processor. Tracking of the RCA is facilitated by a non-tagged hash table of counts represented by a Region Victim Hash (RVH). When a region is evicted from the RCA, and lines from the evicted region still reside in the processor's caches (i.e., the region's line-count is non-zero), the RCA line-count is added to the corresponding RVH count. The RVH count is decremented by the value of the region line count following a subsequent processor cache eviction/invalidation of the region previously evicted from the RCA.01-28-2010
20100131439BIT-SELECTION FOR STRING-BASED GENETIC ALGORITHMS - Selecting bits in a string-based genetic algorithm is provided. A type of genetic operation to perform is determined. Responsive to a determination to perform a crossover operation, an input comprising a pair of strings is received. The strings in the pair of strings are compared to identify a set of non-matching points. A set of points from the set of non-matching points is randomly selected, forming a set of randomly selected non-matching points. A new string for the pair of strings is generated using the set of randomly selected non-matching points.05-27-2010
20100281220Predictive ownership control of shared memory computing system data - A method, circuit arrangement, and design structure utilize a lock prediction data structure to control ownership of a cache line in a shared memory computing system. In a first node among the plurality of nodes, lock prediction data in a hardware-based lock prediction data structure for a cache line associated with a first memory request is updated in response to that first memory request, wherein at least a portion of the lock prediction data is predictive of whether the cache line is associated with a release operation. The lock prediction data is then accessed in response to a second memory request associated with the cache line and issued by a second node and a determination is made as to whether to transfer ownership of the cache line from the first node to the second node based at least in part on the accessed lock prediction data.11-04-2010
20100281221Shared Data Prefetching with Memory Region Cache Line Monitoring - A method, circuit arrangement, and design structure for prefetching data for responding to a memory request, in a shared memory computing system of the type that includes a plurality of nodes, is provided. Prefetching data comprises, receiving, in response to a first memory request by a first node, presence data for a memory region associated with the first memory request from a second node that sources data requested by the first memory request, and selectively prefetching at least one cache line from the memory region based on the received presence data. Responding to a memory request comprises tracking presence data associated with memory regions associated with cached cache lines in the first node, and, in response to a memory request by a second node, forwarding the tracked presence data for a memory region associated with the memory request to the second node.11-04-2010

Jason F. Cantin, Round Rock, TX US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100191914REGION COHERENCE ARRAY HAVING HINT BITS FOR A CLUSTERED SHARED-MEMORY MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM - A system and method for a multilevel region coherence protocol for use in Region Coherence Arrays (RCAs) deployed in clustered shared-memory multiprocessor systems which optimize cache-to-cache transfers (interventions) by using region hint bits in each RCA to allow memory requests for lines of a region of the memory to be optimally sent to only a determined portion of the clustered shared-memory multiprocessor system without broadcasting the requests to all processors in the system. A sufficient number of region hint bits are used to uniquely identify each level of the system's interconnect hierarchy to optimally predict which level of the system likely includes a processor that has cached copies of lines of data from the region.07-29-2010
20100191921REGION COHERENCE ARRAY FOR A MULT-PROCESSOR SYSTEM HAVING SUBREGIONS AND SUBREGION PREFETCHING - A Region Coherence Array (RCA) having subregions and subregion prefetching for shared-memory multiprocessor systems having a single-level, or a multi-level interconnect hierarchy architecture.07-29-2010
20110161264OPTIMIZED SEEDING OF EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHM BASED SIMULATIONS - Seed candidate solutions can be inserted into the later generations of the population of an optimization problem during an evolutionary algorithm based simulation. Seed candidate solutions can be determined in response to an evolutionary algorithm based simulator receiving a problem description of an optimization problem. The seed candidate solutions can be sorted according to the seed candidate solutions' fitness. The simulator can start an evolutionary algorithm based simulation with a randomly generated initial population. The simulator can detect a condition for inserting seed candidate solutions into the population. The simulator can then insert the first seed candidate into the current population that is generated by the simulator in accordance with the evolutionary algorithm. A solution to the optimization problem can be determined based on successive generation of candidate solutions and insertion of additional seed candidate solutions in subsequent generations of the population.06-30-2011

Jason F. Cantin, Madison, WI US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080215821DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION UTILIZING AN IN COHERENCY STATE - A cache coherent data processing system includes at least first and second coherency domains each including at least one processing unit. The first coherency domain includes a first cache memory, and the second coherency domain includes a coherent second cache memory. The first cache memory within the first coherency domain of the data processing system holds a memory block in a storage location associated with an address tag and a coherency state field. The coherency state field is set to a state that indicates that the address tag is valid, that the storage location does not contain valid data, and that the memory block is likely cached only within the first coherency domain.09-04-2008