Predicting outcomes for memory requests in a cache memory

摘要

The described embodiments include a cache controller with a prediction mechanism in a cache. In the described embodiments, the prediction mechanism is configured to perform a lookup in each table in a hierarchy of lookup tables in parallel to determine if a memory request is predicted to be a hit in the cache, each table in the hierarchy comprising predictions whether memory requests to corresponding regions of a main memory will hit the cache, the corresponding regions of the main memory being smaller for tables lower in the hierarchy.

主权项

1. A method for operating a cache, comprising:
in a prediction mechanism, performing operations for:
performing a lookup in each table in a hierarchy of lookup tables in parallel to determine if a memory request is predicted to be a hit in the cache, each table in the hierarchy comprising predictions whether memory requests to corresponding regions of a main memory will hit in the cache, each of the regions in a given table including a corresponding number of addresses in the main memory, wherein the regions include a smaller number of addresses in the main memory for each table lower in the hierarchy.