Patent ID: 7913041
Filing Date: 2011-03-22
Classification: G06F,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for reconfiguring cache memory, comprising: analyzing one or more characteristics of an execution entity accessing a cache memory; and reconfiguring the cache dynamically based on the one or more characteristics analyzed, the step of reconfiguring including modifying associativity of the cache memory, modifying amount of the cache memory available to store data, changing coherence granularity of the cache memory, or modifying line size of the cache memory, or combination thereof, wherein the cache memory further includes higher level cache memory and lower level cache memory, each cache line of the lower level cache memory divided into a plurality of sectors, associating a granularity bit with each sector of a cache line in the lower level cache memory, the granularity bit for indicating whether a sector should be cached into the higher level cache memory from the lower level cache memory when one or more other sectors in the cache line are cached into the higher level cache memory from the lower level cache memory.