Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Load ordering in a weakly-ordered processor
- Patent Title (中): 在弱有序处理器中加载排序
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Application No.: US13750972Application Date: 2013-01-25
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Publication No.: US09383995B2Publication Date: 2016-07-05
- Inventor: Pradeep Kanapathipillai , Hari Kannan , Po-Yung Chang , Ming-Ta Hsu , Rajat Goel
- Applicant: Apple Inc.
- Applicant Address: US CA Cupertino
- Assignee: Apple Inc.
- Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Cupertino
- Agency: Meyertons, Hood, Kivlin, Kowert & Goetzel, P.C.
- Main IPC: G06F9/30
- IPC: G06F9/30 ; G06F13/00 ; G06F9/38

Abstract:
Techniques are disclosed relating to ordering of load instructions in a weakly-ordered memory model. In one embodiment, a processor includes a cache with multiple cache lines and a store queue configured to maintain status information associated with a store instruction that targets a location in one of the cache lines. In this embodiment, the processor is configured to set an indicator in the status information in response to migration of the targeted cache line. The indicator may be usable to sequence performance of load instructions that are younger than the store instruction. For example, the processor may be configured to wait, based on the indicator, to perform a younger load instruction that targets the same location as the store instruction until the store instruction is removed from the store queue. This may prevent forwarding of the value of the store instruction to the younger load and preserve load-load ordering.
Public/Granted literature
- US20140215191A1 LOAD ORDERING IN A WEAKLY-ORDERED PROCESSOR Public/Granted day:2014-07-31
Information query