Patent ID: 7991960

Claim:
Data store access circuitry comprising: a data store for storing values; comparator circuitry coupled to said data store and responsive to receipt of a data access request comprising an address to compare at least a portion of said address with at least a portion of one or more of said values stored in said data store so as to identify a stored value matching said address; a base value register coupled to said comparator circuitry and storing a base value corresponding to at least a portion of at least one of said stored values; and comparator control circuitry coupled to said comparator circuitry to control: (i) which portion of said address is processed as a non-shared portion and compared by said comparator circuitry with non-shared portions of said one or more stored values stored in said data store; and (ii) which portion of said address is processed as a shared portion and compared by said comparator circuitry with a shared portion of said base value stored in said base value register; wherein said shared portion of said base value has a value matching corresponding portions of all of said stored values stored within said data store, write circuitry coupled to said data store to write respective stored values; a mask register for storing a mask value; and wherein said comparator control circuitry comprises a comparator and said comparator control circuitry is responsive to receipt of each stored value being written to said data store to compare said address with said base value and to update said mask value by adding identifiers to said mask value identifying any bits of said address and base value that do not match; said comparator control circuitry determining said non-shared portion as said portion corresponding to said identifiers of said mask and said shared portion of said address as said portion corresponding to said other portion of said mask.