Prefetch canceling based on most recent accesses

摘要

The present invention is a method and apparatus to monitor prefetch requests. A storage circuit is coupled to a prefetcher to store a plurality of prefetch addresses which corresponds to most recent prefetch requests from a processor. The prefetcher generates an access request to a memory when requested by the processor. A canceler cancels the access request when the access request corresponds to at least P of the stored prefetch addresses. P is a non-zero integer.