Patent Document

The present Application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/270,249 entitled “SPIRAL CACHE POWER MANAGEMENT, ADAPTIVE SIZING AND INTERFACE OPERATIONS” filed on Nov. 13, 2008. The disclosure of the above-referenced U.S. Patent Application is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is related to tiled storage, and more particularly to power management within a tiled storage. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     The above-referenced parent U.S. patent application discloses a tiled memory device in the form of a spiral cache and power management operations within the spiral cache. In general, it is desirable to power-manage all memory sub-systems within a computer system, so that energy is not wasted, and so that available energy is used as efficiently as possible by the different levels of the memory sub-system for system storage needs. 
     Reducing the power consumption of a semiconductor storage device also typically reduces the operating temperature of the integrated circuit of the storage device, which typically leads to an increase in the lifetime/decrease in the failure rate of the storage device and other circuits integrated with the storage device. 
     Therefore, it is desirable to provide a power-managed tiled memory and a method of power management within a tiled memory, including power managing individual caches or other tiled storage devices, which may be spiral caches. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is embodied in a tiled memory and method of operation. The memory has multiple tiles with storage locations for storing values, each of which may be a smaller cache memory such as a direct-mapped cache or an associative cache. 
     Dynamic power management of the multiple tiles is performed in accordance with determinations of tile activity. The determinations may be made external to or internal to the tiles, and the tiles may either automatically enter a power-saving state, or an external unit may sent commands directing one or more tiles to enter a power-saving state. The determination of tile activity may be made by measuring a “hit” rate of accesses to the tiles, and in particular spiral cache embodiments of the invention, a push-back rate of ejection of values from the head of the spiral cache toward the backing store. The hit rate and push-back rate may be compared to corresponding threshold values, and if they fall below the thresholds, an indication that the tile may enter a power-saving state is raised to the external unit or the tile manages to enter a power-saving state itself. The external unit may poll for indications that tile activity is below the threshold, and in response, send commands directing one or more tiles to enter the power-saving state. 
     In accordance with particular embodiments of the invention, the tiles may comprise network interface circuits and separate storage circuits, and in the power-saving state, the network interface circuits remain active, so that in spiral cache memories and other serially-connected circuits, individual tiles in a power-saving state may be bypassed by having the tiles in the power-saving state forward requests and values through the network circuits while the corresponding storage circuits are powered-down. 
     The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following, more particular, description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
       The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives, and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying Figures, wherein like reference numerals indicate like components, and: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a system incorporating a spiral cache according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing details of a spiral cache according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 3A and 3B  are block diagrams illustrating power management techniques in a spiral cache in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a tile-managed power management technique in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a controller portion of a controller-managed power management technique in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a tile portion of the controller-managed power management technique illustrated in  FIG. 5 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention encompasses a power management method that may be embodied in a tiled storage device. The tiles may be structurally organized as a spiral that is dynamically partitioned into an active and an inactive portion according to a boundary that may be adjusted on a per-tile basis. The power management control may be determined entirely within the tiles themselves, or an external controller such as the memory interface control may direct the tiles to enter or leave a power-saving state. 
     A tiled storage device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 1 , in the form of a two-dimensional spiral cache. The spiral nature of the exemplary cache can be visualized as a “wrapping” of a linear array around tile  1 , such that the linear array now forms an Archimedes spiral with a Manhattan layout. A processor  100 , lower-order cache, or other data/instruction sink connects to the front end of the spiral at front-most tile  1 . The tail end of the spiral, in the example at tile  49  of the 7×7 matrix of tiles depicted, connects to a backing store  112 , which may be a higher-order cache, system memory, disc storage or other data/instruction storage. In general, storage cell contents are continually swapped backwards toward the tail as new values are inserted at the head of the spiral, effectively pushing back the existing contents of the storage cells until an empty cell is encountered or the value stored at the tail end is swapped out into backing store  112 . For the spiral cache illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the spiral network  114  of next neighbor connections is dedicated to the push-back operation. A move-to-front (M2F) network  116  propagates commands, command responses, requests for values and the returned values among the tiles, including power management requests, responses and commands as will described in further detail below. Requests and commands are originated on the diagonal paths  118 , where they are received by each tile on the diagonal paths  118 . The tiles along the diagonal paths, communicate the power management commands and requests along the x-y pathways formed by M2F network  116 , so that each tile receives the power management commands and requests. 
     For some embodiments of the invention, the memory interface that connects the tiled storage device of the present invention to other levels of the memory hierarchy and processors is involved in power management control, as mentioned above. Referring now to  FIG. 2 , details of a spiral cache  102  in accordance with an embodiment of the invention are depicted, showing a memory interface  106  that includes a power management unit (PMU)  108  for performing power management control in conjunction with power management functions provided by tiles with storage tile network  104 . Spiral cache  102  is coupled to processor  100  and to backing store  112 . The interface to backing store  112  includes a backing store response queue bsq, which buffers values provided from backing store  112  to spiral cache  102 . The interface to backing store  112  also includes a push-back/read queue pbrdq that serializes read requests sent from memory interface  106  to a read queue rdq when spiral cache  102  “misses” and push-back requests containing push-back values leaving the tail tile of storage tile network  104 . Multiplexer M 1  operates to serialize the push-back requests and the read requests. As will be described in further detail below, the push-back interface to backing store  112  is involved in not only the eviction of values needed when tiles are placed in a power-down or other power-saving state, but also in determining push-back rates, which are used in some embodiments of the invention to determine when the active size of the tiled storage should be changed. 
     The spiral caches described above provide a large cache memory that has low access latency. Large caches can cope with large working sets, e.g., sets of instructions and/or data associated with a given software process, but large caches waste power when executing for programs having small working sets, as the working sets only occupy a small portion of the cache. The structure of the spiral cache greatly facilitates dynamically adjusting the size of an active cache area to adapt to differing working set sizes. A spiral network imposes a linear structure on arbitrary-dimensional cache designs. The linear structure identifies the head (front-most tile) and the tail for the move-to-front placement algorithm. A move-to-front heuristic has the effect of compacting the working set of a program, or of multiple programs in a multiprogrammed environment, at the head of the spiral. The compaction effect is particularly visible for programs whose working set is smaller than the capacity of the spiral cache. Then, the spiral cache can be divided into two portions, an active portion at the head of the spiral which contains the working set, and an inactive portion at the tail of the spiral in which the storage of the tiles remains unused. The compaction of a spiral cache can be used to reduce the power consumption of a spiral cache. In particular, in very large spiral caches, power consumption can be reduced for processes/programs having small working sets. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 3A , a power management scheme for use in a spiral cache is illustrated, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. An active portion  101 A of the spiral cache, which is illustrated as a linear array for simplicity, is divided from an inactive portion  101 B, by a boundary BD, which can be set on a per-tile basis. Active portion  101 A, is the portion closest to processor  100 , and the inactive portion  101 B is the portion closest to backing store  112 . The memory arrays of tiles  114  within inactive portion  101 B are placed in a power-down state. In the depicted embodiment, no global control of the position of boundary BD, nor the power-saving/power-down state of active portion  101 A and inactive portion  101 B is required. Tiles  114  can determine when to enter a power saving state based on activity observed at the tiles themselves, and therefore no external logic or control algorithm is needed. An exemplary algorithm for tile-determined power management will be described in further detail below with reference to  FIG. 4 . When boundary BD is moved toward processor  100 , any values stored in tiles  114  which are entering an inactive state must be ejected to backing store  112  (which may be a next level of cache farther from processor  100 ). 
     Referring now to  FIG. 3B , a power management scheme for use in a spiral cache is depicted in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 3B  is similar to  FIG. 3A , and therefore only differences between them will be described below. In  FIG. 3B , the position of boundary BD is set by a global power control logic  116 , which may select the size of active portion  101 A in conformity with a priori information or measurements that indicate a size of a current working set, thereby dictating the desired “effective size” of the spiral cache. 
     In both the embodiment of  FIG. 3A  and the embodiment of  FIG. 3B , multiple power saving levels can be supported, in which the spiral cache is divided into more than two portions, which has advantages when the access latency to activate a tile in a portion that is in an intermediate power saving mode (e.g., low power “sleep” modes) is less than the access latency to backing store  112 . If multiple power saving modes are supported in the tiles, the boundaries between the portions can be adjusted on a per-tile basis in a manner similar to that illustrated above for power-down vs. power-up states. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , an algorithm for the power management of a tile in a spiral cache is illustrated in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The algorithm is executed within each tile and toggles the power supply of the tile&#39;s memory array between a powered state and an un-powered state. The move-to-front and push-back networks are maintained in an active state. Each tile maintains two counters: a hit counter HT and a push-back counter PB. During each duty cycle, each tile updates the counter implicated by push-back or move-to-front operations for the duty cycle. When an operation request is received (step  140 ), if the tile&#39;s storage is in the in-active (power down) state (decision  141 ), and if the operation is a push-back request (decision  152 ), then local push-back counter PB is incremented (step  153 ). If the request is a M2F request (decision  154 ) then the M2F request is forwarded to the next-neighbor tiles on the M2F network (step  155 ). If the value of local push-back counter PB is greater than a first threshold ThreshPB′ (decision  156 ), the tile&#39;s storage is powered on, and counter PB is reset (step  157 ). If the tile&#39;s storage is in the active (power up) state (decision  141 ), and the request is an M2F lookup request (decision  142 ) the M2F lookup operation is performed (step  143 ) and if the lookup hits (decision  144 ), local hit counter HT is incremented (step  145 ). If the tile&#39;s storage is in the active (power up) state (decision  141 ), and the request is a push-back request (decision  146 ), the push-back operation is performed (step  147 ) and local push-back hit counter PB is incremented (step  148 ). If the tile&#39;s storage is in the active (power up) state (decision  141 ), and if hit counter HT remains below hit threshold ThreshHT while push-back counter PB remains below a second lower push-back threshold ThreshPB (decision  149 ), all dirty values in the tile&#39;s storage are pushed out (step  150 ) and the storage array in the tile is turned off (step  151 ). Until the power management operations are suspended or the system is shut down (decision  158 ), the algorithm of steps  140 - 157  is repeated at each duty cycle. While  FIG. 4  illustrates a technique that can be performed within the individual tiles, in general there will need to be an additional mechanism to: 1) ensure that push-back/read queue pbrdq does not overflow with dirty lines being written back to backing store  112  as a result of the power-down of one or more tiles; and 2) that the power-down and power-up of tiles is performed at a single boundary so that “gaps” are not generated in the cache by a low activity tile surrounded by higher-activity tiles. The first requirement can be met by providing one or more handshaking signals, such as an acknowledgement in response to a push-back of values, so that a tile reconciling dirty values can pace the push-backs to not overflow push-back/read queue pbrdq. Such a mechanism may be provided by a signal indicating that push-back/read queue pbrdq has less than a threshold number of empty entries remaining Another “tile-only management” possibility is to increase the size of push-back/read queue pbrdq by at least the size of a tile&#39;s storage array and to allow tiles to power down only at a very long interval, so that a single tile can power-down, reconcile its dirty lines and push-back/read queue pbrdq can empty before the next tile powers-down. The second requirement can be met by status signals provided between adjacent tiles, so that a tile will only power-down if its neighbor on the push-back network toward the tail is already powered-down and so that a tile will only power-up if its neighbor toward the head is already powered-up. 
     The methodology illustrated in  FIG. 4  operates such that when a tile&#39;s memory array is powered on, the tile counts the number of hits due to move-to-front lookups and the number of lines received from the spiral network. If the rate of hits and push-ins (over a period of time) is less than a given threshold, the tile does not contribute constructively to the program execution. Thus, the tile should be removed from the active portion  101 A of  FIG. 3A . Before doing so, all “dirty” data (i.e., data that has been modified from the corresponding value contained in backing store  112 ) must be evicted. The eviction can be performed by pushing dirty data out towards the tail end of the spiral during duty cycles when the tile does not receive a push-in from the spiral network. When the array does not contain any more dirty data, the memory array can be powered off safely. A tile with a powered-down memory array monitors the push-back activity on the spiral by means of the push-back counter. If the number of push-backs over a period of time exceeds a given threshold, the tile could contribute its memory array constructively to the program execution. In this case, the tile powers up its memory array, and resumes storing push-in data and performing lookups due to requests arriving on the move-to-front network. The algorithm illustrated in  FIG. 4  does not employ centralized control of the power-saving state of tiles within storage tile network  104  of  FIG. 2 . Therefore, in accordance with the embodiment of  FIG. 4 , PMU  108  of  FIG. 2  is not needed and may be omitted. Each individual tile within storage tile network  104  makes an autonomous decision whether or not the individual tile should contribute its storage array to the set of active tiles. However, since placing a tile in a power-saving mode generally requires reconciling the tile&#39;s storage with backing store  112 , flow control is needed to ensure that push-back/read queue pbrdq is not overflowed when decreasing the active size of the spiral cache. 
     Dynamic Power Management Implementation As pointed out above with reference to  FIGS. 3A-3B , the compaction effect of the move-to-front heuristic provides a basis for dynamic power management, which may be performed on a tile-by-tile basis. The spiral push-back network (e.g., push-back network  114  of  FIG. 1 ) imposes a linear structure on the N tiles of the spiral cache. If tile  1  is at the front/head of the spiral network and tile N is at the tail end of the spiral then, over any time interval the number of push-outs decreases monotonically toward the tail end, that is n po (t)≧n po (t+1), where n po (t) is the number of push-outs of tile t. The same is not necessarily true for the hit rate of move-to-front lookups. Nevertheless, the monotonicity of the push-outs implies the compaction effect described above. If a working set of one or multiple programs fits within the spiral cache, the working set will occupy a consecutive subset of tiles at the front of the spiral network, i.e., the active tile set described above. The complementary subset of inactive tiles at the tail end does not contribute to program execution, and should be powered off to reduce power consumption due to leakage and any other mechanisms that are removed when the tile&#39;s storage is powered-down. Also, if a set of tiles near the tail end of active tile set does not contribute significantly to the program execution, the tiles near the tail end may also be placed in a power-saving state (e.g., the tiles&#39; storage may be powered off) without a noticeable degradation in workload performance. The threshold values ThreshHT, ThreshPB and ThreshPB′ employed in the algorithm illustrated in  FIG. 4  may be chosen so as to balance the trade-off between workload performance degradation and reduction of spiral cache power consumption. 
     As pointed out above, the strategy for implementing dynamic power management in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention shifts the boundary between the active and inactive tile sets on a tile-by-tile basis. When a tile at the tail end of the active tile subset detects that it is ready to be powered off, memory interface  106  coordinates a reconcile operation performed on the tile&#39;s storage array, in order to prevent overflow of push-back/read queue pbrdq. Once the storage is reconciled, the tile removes power from the internal storage array, effectively moving the boundary between the active and inactive tiles by one tile toward the front of the spiral network. Analogously, powering up the tile at the head of the inactive tile subset moves the boundary by one tile toward the tail of the spiral network. In general, all tiles in a spiral cache may be reconciled by sending a command that “sweeps” the cache for “dirty” values (i.e., those values that have been written-to and are present in the backing store as now invalid values) and writes those dirty values to the backing store by assembling a backing store write operation using the address tag. After the write has been enqueued, the previously dirty value is marked as clean. The functionality required to implement the reconcile operation needed for reconciling a single a tile is identical, with the exception that the command is directed to a single tile only and therefore specifies the tile. Whenever the subset of inactive tiles is non-empty, reconciling the tail tile of the active tile subset requires that its dirty lines reach the backing store. Consequently, the inactive tiles must forward push-back requests received along the spiral network toward the tail of the spiral, even though their storage is inactive. Therefore, the interface/network portion of the tiles remains active while the tiles&#39; storage arrays are powered-down. In the power-saving state, which will be noted below as state PWR_OFF, an individual tile&#39;s network interface forwards push-back requests without a need to examine them. 
     Memory Interface Implementation Memory interface  106  of  FIG. 2  controls power management actions in a fashion that prevents queue overflows. Referring now to  FIG. 5 , an algorithm illustrating operation directed by PMU  108  of  FIG. 2 , is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. First, a delay of T pm  duty cycles is introduced (step  160 ), where a duty cycle is the systolic cycle during which transfers are made between tiles in the spiral cache, look-ups are performed and read/write operations are completed. T pm  is the periodic interval at the end of which power management control is applied, so that the spiral cache is re-sized only periodically. In between the power management control cycles, i.e., during the delay of step  160 , the tiles collect usage statistics of their individual storage arrays during normal operation, which may be statistics of individual caches within each tile as described above. However, tile-performed activity measurements are not the only mechanism by which decisions can be made as to power management, as, for example, PMU  108  might send commands powering down a number of tiles based upon workload data that is determined a priori, or in conformity with system level determinations of workload needs. When the next power management control cycle commences, if the index of the tail tile t b  of the active subset is greater than one, i.e. if any tile other than the frontmost tile is active (decision  161 ), then a power management status request is sent to tile t b  over the M2F network (step  162 ). Next, if the index of the head tile t b +1 of the inactive subset is less than or equal to N, i.e. if any tile is inactive (decision  163 ), then a power management status request is sent to tile t b +1 over the M2F network (step  164 ). The algorithm then waits a predetermined number of cycles (depending on N) for the replies to the power management requests to return (step  165 ). If a response indicates tile t b  is ready to power-down (decision  166 ), then up to 3√{square root over (N)} reconcile requests are sent to tile t b  (step  167 ), and a wait of N−t b  duty cycles is completed to ensure that any outstanding push-back and read requests ahead of the reconcile requests have time to complete (step  168 ). A check of open entries in push-back/read queue pbrdq is performed to determine whether to continue to wait (decision  169 ), and once the number of open entries is equal to the number of reconcile requests sent (e.g., 3√{square root over (N)}), tile t b  is checked to determine if there are any dirty lines (decision  170 ). If dirty lines remain in tile t b  (decision  170 ), steps  167 - 170  are repeated until all of the dirty lines are reconciled. Then, a power down command is sent from PMU  108  to tile t b  directing tile t b  to power-down its internal storage array, generally by switching off one of the power supply rails provided to the memory cells. The value of t b  is decremented (step  172 ) and until the system is shut down or the power management control algorithm is halted (decision  176 ) step  160  is entered to wait T pm  duty cycles until the next power management cycle is commenced. 
     If tile t b  is not ready to power-down (decision  166 ), then if the response to the power management status request sent to tile t b +1 indicates that tile t b +1 is ready to power-up (decision  173 ), then a power up command is sent from PMU  108  to tile t b +1 directing tile t b +1 to power-up its internal storage array (step  174 ). The value of t b  is incremented (step  175 ) and until the system is shut down or the power management control algorithm is halted (decision  176 ) step  160  is entered to wait T pm  duty cycles until the next power management cycle is commenced. When a storage array in a tile is powered-down, the network interface circuits of the tile are placed in a “push-back forward mode”, in which push-back requests are forwarded through to the next tile in the direction of the tail of the cache. When a storage array in a tile is powered-up, the network interface circuits of the tile are placed in a “push-back swap mode”, which is a normal push-back operating mode which the values within push-back requests are swapped backward into the next tile in the direction of the tail of the cache. 
     The algorithm illustrated in  FIG. 5  provides only a portion of the power management functionality. Referring now to  FIG. 6 , a tile-performed portion of the power management control algorithm is illustrated. In the illustrated embodiment, the tiles receive the power management commands via the M2F network. However, a separate network could be employed. A field within the power management commands distinguishes them from move-to-front requests and other cache commands. The address field (or alternatively another field) of the command is used to contain the target tile identifier or index, so that other tiles can ignore/discard the command. A tile ressponding to a power management status request command places the response data in a data field of the command, turning the command/request into a response/reply. As long as only one tile responds, a collision free reply protocol is maintained, due to transmission of only one power management command per systolic cycle. Except for frontmost tile  1 , there is a control unit within each tile in the exemplary cache of the illustrated embodiment that executes the following algorithm. Queue overflow is prevented by PMU  108  directing every activity except for the collection of usage statistics within the individual tiles. When the storage device is initialized, the storage array in each tile starts in the powered-up PWR_ON mode (step  180 ). If a power management status request is received by the tile (decision  181 ) then if the tile is in mode PWR_ON (decision  182 ) and if hit counter HT remains below a hit threshold ThreshHT while push-back counter PB remains below a push-back threshold ThreshPB (decision  183 ), then the tile replies with a power-down (PD) ready response and sets its internal mode to PURGE (step  184 ). Otherwise if hit counter HT exceeds threshold ThreshHT or push-back counter exceeds push-back threshold (decision  183 ) then the tile responds with a PD not ready response (step  185 ). If a power management status request is received by the tile (decision  181 ) then if the tile is in mode PWR_OFF (decision  186 ), if push-back counter PB stays below push-back threshold ThreshPB (decision  187 ), then the tile responds with a power-on (PO) not ready response (step  189 ). If push-back counter PB exceeds push-back threshold ThreshPB (decision  187 ), then the tile responds with a PO ready response (step  188 ). 
     When a power-off command targeting a tile is received by the tile (decision  190 ), then the tile sets its mode to PWR_OFF and powers down the internal storage array, push-back counter PB is reset to zero (step  191 ). When a power-on command targeting a tile is received by the tile (decision  192 ), then the tile sets its mode to PWR_ON and powers on the internal storage array, push-back counter PB and hit counter HT are reset to zero (step  193 ). If a reconcile command is received by the tile (decision  194 ), then a detected dirty line is reconciled (unless the entire tile is clean) and the tile replies with its current dirty/clean status (step  195 ). The tile continues to collect usage statistics under normal operation (step  196 ) until the system is shut down or the power management scheme is ended (decision  197 ). Step  196  includes steps  140 - 148  and steps  152 - 155  of  FIG. 4 , omitting the comparisons of hit counter HT and push-back counter PB, along with the tile-performed power management actions of steps  149 - 151  and  156 - 157 . 
     As noted above, a tile is in one of three power management modes: 1) PWR_ON, 2) PWR_OFF, and PURGE. PURGE is an intermediate state occurring between mode PWR_ON and PWR_OFF while cache lines are being reconciled. There is no intermediate state when transitioning from PWR_OFF to mode PWR_ON. Depending on the type of dynamic power management command received on the move-to-front network, the tile performs different actions. When the tile is in mode PWR_ON, a power management status request is interpreted as an inquiry into whether the tile is ready to power off its internal storage array, according to the usage statistics that have been collected. The tile compares the values in its hit counter HT and its push-back counter PB against thresholds ThreshHT and ThreshPB to make the requested decision. Simulations suggest that the following choices of time interval and thresholds yield satisfactory results:
 
 T   pm =2 13 ÷2 20  duty cycles
 
ThreshHT=2 −10  
 
ThreshPB=4·ThreshHT
 
With the above values, the predicate in decision  183  of  FIG. 6  becomes:
 
               HT     T   pm       &lt;     ThreshHT   ⋀     PB     T   pm         &lt;     4   ⁢   ThreshHT           
If the predicate is true, the tile cache contributes so little to the current workload processing computation that it may be powered off. The tile transitions into state PURGE, and waits for reconcile requests from the memory interface. If a tile is in mode PWR_OFF when receiving a power management status request, it replies with whether the collected usage statistics indicate that its internal storage array should be powered on. With the assignments made in the equations above, the predicate in decision  187  of  FIG. 6  becomes:
 
               &gt;     8   ⁢   ThreshHT       ,         
which essentially sets ThreshPB′ to 2*ThreshPB. Doubling the threshold for the push-back rate to 8 ThreshHT compared to the power-down decision of 4 ThreshHT prevents the tile from thrashing. If the predicate is true, the tile has forwarded sufficiently many cache lines on the push-back network for it to contribute to the computation by powering up. When a tile receives a reconcile request from the memory interface, it is in mode PURGE in the process of transitioning from PWR_ON to PWR_OFF. The memory interface throttles the reconcile requests such that the tile can push a dirty line out via the push-back network without any danger of overflowing the pbrdq queue, that connects the spiral cache to the backing store. In response to reconcile requests, the tile uses a line detector, to detect and identify a dirty line to reconcile. It replies to the memory interface with a status indicating whether its storage array contains any more dirty lines.
 
     Special Power Management cache instructions The dynamic power management techniques depicted in  FIGS. 5-6  are expected to provide a default mode of operation for a spiral cache in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. However, there are other possibilities for power management that extend beyond the basic requirements, that provide for fine-tuning and more explicit control of power management within the spiral cache. Such commands may include a command for activating and de-activating the dynamic power management scheme, setting values of thresholds ThreshHT and ThreshPB, and a command to set the maximum size N pm  of the set of active tiles. Enabling and disabling dynamic power management on or off may be desirable for functional and performance debugging purposes, although simulations have shown that dynamic power management does not cause noticeable performance degradation. A command to assign hit threshold ThreshHT provides a control by which a designer or operator of a system may optimize the tradeoff between power consumption and cache performance. For users and software developers, it can be beneficial to constrain the number of active tiles explicitly with an instruction. For example, if a program is known to exhibit an exponentially decreasing hit rate over the tiles along the spiral network, reducing the number of active tiles beyond those selected by the dynamic power management may well reduce leakage power without impacting program performance. Another example would be a user&#39;s decision to save power at the expense of performance, which is a common decision made in operating battery powered devices. 
     An example algorithm for reducing the number of active tiles to a value specified in an instruction can be provided as illustrated in the following pseudo-code: 
                                 for t = t b ; t &gt;= N pm ; t = t − 1 do         repeat         send up to 3{square root over (N)} reconcile requests to tile t         wait for N − t duty-cycles for potential push-backs to enter pbrdq         wait until pbrdq has at least 3{square root over (N)} open entries         until tile t has no dirty lines         command tile t to power-off internal storage and switch into         push-back forward mode         t b  ← t b  − 1       end for                    
Of the above-listed cache instructions, only the command to set the maximum size of the set of active tiles requires a change in memory interface  106  so that storage is provided to store the maximum size N pm  of the active tile subset. A persistent copy of maximum size N pm  is retained since in the method of  FIG. 5 , step  163  should compare the value of t b +1 with the maximum size N pm  of the active tile subset, rather than the total number of tiles N. Furthermore, when the instruction to set the maximum size N pm  is executed, and the tile boundary t b  is larger than N pm , memory interface  106  executes the above algorithm to power-down all tiles beyond the new limit N pm .
 
     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form, and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Technology Category: 4