POWER SAVING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FIRST IN FIRST OUT (FIFO) MEMORIES

摘要

In various embodiments, apparatuses and methods are disclosed to keep a memory clock gated when the data for a current memory address is the same as the data in the immediate previous memory address. For a write function, new data will only be written into the current memory address if it is different from the data in the immediate previous memory address. Similarly, for a read function, the data will only be read out of the current memory address if it is different from the data in the immediate previous memory address. Each row in the memory may have one associated status bit outside the memory. Data may only be written to or read from the current memory address when the status bit is set. Clock gating the memory ports may reduce the overall power consumption of the memory.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a processing component; and a memory manager component operative on the processing component to:
prevent writing data to a memory address of a memory when the write address is contiguous with respect to the immediately previous address and the data is the same as data in an immediate previous memory address of the memory; andprevent reading data from the memory address of the memory when the data is the same as the data in the immediate previous memory address of the memory.