Method and apparatus for internal cache copy

摘要

A method and apparatus for improving data processing system performance having a cache. Data from one cache line is easily and quickly copied to another cache line within the cache. In the preferred embodiment, this copy cache line operation is initiated using an opcode of a central processing unit's instruction set. Thus, software running on the data processing system can invoke this cache line copy by executing this CPU instruction. Another feature is the ability to rename a cache line, again using a CPU instruction to initiate the operation. This provides a logical copy of the cache data without having to perform a physical copy.