Patent ID: 8626964
Filing Date: 2014-01-07
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of processing data using an accelerator arranged to receive data from a main memory and execute an operation on the data to process it, comprising; requesting a DMA data transfer from a virtual address in the main memory to the accelerator; upon receipt of the DMA data transfer request at the accelerator generating in the accelerator a list of the physical memory locations within the main memo of requested data corresponding to the virtual address; copying the list to a stored list; and upon subsequent DMA data transfer request accessing the stored list and, if the corresponding virtual address is already present, using the list of physical memory locations calculated for a previous DMA data transfer and commencing the DMA transfer without generating a new list of physical memory locations, wherein the stored list is a cached version of a DMA scatter/gather pointer list generated in respect of the DMA request.