Patent ID: 8312219
Filing Date: 2012-11-13
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: determine a measure of a characteristic of a data object, wherein the characteristic is indicative of an access pattern associated with the data object; select one caching structure, from a plurality of caching structures, in which to store the data object based on the measure of the characteristic, wherein each individual caching structure in the plurality of caching structures stores data objects having a similar measure of the characteristic with regard to each of the other data objects in that individual caching structure; store the data object in the selected caching structure; expand a reference to the data object to reference the selected caching structure; and perform at least one processing operation on the data object stored in the selected caching structure, wherein the plurality of caching structures comprises at least one operand buffer cache that stores at least one of representations of data objects having a relatively high spatial locality with regard to one another or representations of data objects having a relatively high temporal locality with regard to one another, at least one structure cache that stores structured objects accessed according to one or more common properties of the objects, wherein the structured objects are objects that store information about data objects, and a software cache that stores representations of data objects that have neither a relatively high spatial or temporal locality with regard to other data objects, wherein the processor selects one cache structure by determining if the measure of the characteristic corresponds to a required measure of the characteristic needed to use the at least one operand buffer structure, and in response to the measure of the characteristic not corresponding to the required measure of the characteristic needed to use the at least one operand buffer structure, determining if the measure of the characteristic corresponds to a required measure of the characteristic needed to use the at least one structure cache.