METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING UNUSED BITS IN A MEMORY POINTER

摘要

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that uses unused bits in a memory pointer. During operation, the system determines a set of address bits in a address space that will not be needed for addressing purposes during program operation. Subsequently, the system stores data associated with the memory pointer in this set of address bits. The system masks this set of address bits when using the memory pointer to access the memory address associated with the memory pointer. Storing additional data in unused pointer bits can reduce the number of memory accesses for a program and improve program performance and/or reliability.