Patent ID: 6421826
Filing Date: 2002-07-16
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for compiling source code into executable code that performs prefetching for memory operations within regions of code that tend to generate cache misses, comprising:compiling a source code module containing programming language instructions into an executable code module containing instructions suitable for execution by a processor; identifying functions containing memory operations that tend to generate a large number of cache misses by, running the executable code module on the processor in a training mode on a representative workload, keeping statistics on cache miss rates for memory operations within functions within the executable code module, and identifying a set of functions that generate a large number of cache misses; and scheduling explicit prefetch instructions into the executable code module in advance of memory operations within the identified set of functions and not in other functions, so that prefetch operations are performed for memory operations within only functions that generate the large number of cache misses.