Patent ID: 6976147

Claim:
A prefetch mechanism comprising: a prefetch predictor table including a plurality of locations configured to store a first plurality of entries each indicative of a stride between a respective pair of memory requests, wherein each of said first plurality of entries is stored in a respective location of said plurality of locations dependent upon a value of an earlier stride; wherein said prefetch predictor table further includes a second plurality of entries each corresponding to a respective one of said first plurality of entries, wherein each of said second plurality of entries includes a count value indicative of a number of times said stride between a respective pair of memory requests is equal to said value of said current stride; a prefetch control coupled to said prefetch predictor table and configured to access a first location of said plurality of locations dependent upon a value of a current stride and to prefetch an address based upon a given one of said first plurality of entries stored within the first location in response to said count value stored within the first location being greater than a first predetermined threshold.