Patent ID: 8122223
Filing Date: 2012-02-21
Classification: G06F,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method, in a data processing system, for predicting whether to perform speculative retrieval of data for a data request from a main memory of the data processing system, comprising: extracting a first address and a first requestor tag from a first data request; comparing the first address to memory regions associated with second addresses stored in address registers of a plurality of finite state machines (FSMs) of a memory controller; selecting a FSM whose memory region includes the first address; retrieving a second requestor tag from a register associated with the selected FSM, wherein the second requestor tag identifies a previous requestor that previously submitted a second data request targeting the memory region associated with the selected FSM; comparing the first requestor tag to the second requestor tag; and controlling whether to speculatively retrieve the data for the first data request from a main memory based on results of the comparison of the first requestor tag to the second requestor tag, wherein selecting a finite state machine whose memory region includes the first address comprises utilizing allocation logic that inhibits selection of FSMs in the plurality of FSMs that have invalid second addresses stored in their associated address registers if the first address is within a memory region of another FSM in the plurality of FSMs.