BATCHING MODIFIED BLOCKS TO THE SAME DRAM PAGE

摘要

To efficiently transfer of data from a cache to a memory, it is desirable that more data corresponding to the same page in the memory be loaded in a line buffer. Writing data to a memory page that is not currently loaded in a row buffer requires closing an old page and opening a new page. Both operations consume energy and clock cycles and potentially delay more critical memory read requests. Hence it is desirable to have more than one write going to the same DRAM page to amortize the cost of opening and closing DRAM pages. A desirable approach is batch write backs to the same DRAM page by retaining modified blocks in the cache until a sufficient number of modified blocks belonging to the same memory page are ready for write backs.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
storing data in a block in a cache, wherein the cache comprises a block set and is coupled to a buffer, and the buffer is further coupled to a memory that comprises multiple pages; evicting a block value from the block set to the buffer based on its priority status and its recentness of use, when there is not enough space to store the data in the block set; determining, for a page in a subset of memory pages, a block count to be the count of blocks with dirty values belonging to the page; and setting priority on all blocks in the cache containing dirty values for the page, if the block count is greater than a first threshold.