Management to reduce power consumption in virtual memory provided by plurality of different types of memory devices

摘要

Reduction of memory power consumption in virtual memory systems that have a combination of different types of physical memory devices working together in a system's primary memory to achieve performance with optimum reductions in power consumption by storing in the virtual memory in the kernel, topology data for each of the different memory devices used.

主权项

1. A method for reducing virtual memory power consumption in a virtual memory system wherein physical memory is provided by a plurality of different physical memory devices comprising:
storing in the virtual memory kernel, topology data for each of said different memory devices including: a memory bank data structure for each of said different devices including a plurality of independently powered memory regions, each memory region having at least one set of ranked power consuming zones ranked according to diminishing power consumption levels; and dynamically reducing the power consumption levels in said regions, under kernel control, to the lowest operable ranked power consumption zone for each region.