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Google patents memory hints to speed up data access

Google has been granted a patent for a new computer instruction that tells the hardware exactly which data to load into fast memory. This instruction includes details about the data's size and how it will be used, such as whether it is code that will be reused. By providing these specific clues, the system can prepare the memory more efficiently before the data is actually needed.

Why it mattersThis is a routine optimization for computer chips that helps processors manage data more efficiently, potentially leading to slightly faster performance in complex tasks.

In the filing’s own words

The disclosed technology may comprise a mechanism that provides address range based memory hints, based on software memory access patterns. The mechanism includes an interface that can be in the form of a new instruction (“mem_range_hint”) that includes as operands (i) the start of the virtual address (“start_vaddr”), (ii) memory region size (“size”), and (iii) a hint (“hint”) associated with the memory access pattern.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method for processing data in a processing element, comprising: determining a starting virtual address and memory access region, the starting virtual address and memory access region defining a memory access range associated with a memory access pattern of a workload being processed by the processing element; determining a plurality of memory address hints associated with a memory address range associated with the memory access pattern, the plurality of memory address hints being represented as a bitmask and including a priority hint indicating a scheduling priority of data associated with a portion of the memory access region and a code hint indicating a reused code associated with processing the workload; and populating one or more memory caches used in processing the data based on one or more of the plurality of memory address hints, wherein determining the starting virtual address and memory access region and determining the plurality of memory address hints are performed using an interface between software associated with the workload and the one or more memory caches.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
Address range based memory hints for prefetcher, cache and memory controller
Patent number
US12743378B2
Application number
18198580
Filed
May 17, 2023
Granted
Sep 22, 2026
Inventors
3
Claims
20

Classified under

G06F 12/0862 Physics & computingG06F 12/1027 Physics & computingG06F 12/126 Physics & computingG06F 2212/1016 Physics & computingG06F 2212/6028 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.