Patent ID: 7383391

Claim:
A method for prefetching data for use by a processor, the method comprising: providing an explicit request for data stored in a page of a memory; checking whether the explicit request matches any previously-provided prefetch request, wherein if the explicit request matches a previously-provided prefetch request, removing the previously-provided prefetch request from a prefetch request queue if it has not yet been issued to the memory; examining a prefetch attribute stored in a page table entry associated with the page of memory for the explicit request, the page table entry used for translating an address used by the explicit request to a physical address of the page of the memory, wherein the prefetch attribute indicates the suitability of prefetching additional data in the page of the memory associated with the page table entry; and determining whether to provide one or more prefetch requests based on the prefetch attribute, the prefetch requests operative to retrieve and store the additional data from the memory that potentially will be requested by the processor.