Microsoft patents memory trick for faster AI chips
This patent describes a method for managing computer memory that destroys data when read. The system checks if the data will be used again; if so, it saves the data back to memory, otherwise it skips the step. This helps optimize how AI processors handle information.
In the filing’s own words
A method comprises receiving a read instruction and determining a read address in computer memory corresponding to the read instruction, where the read address references a cell within a row of read-destructive computer memory. The method further comprises determining a discard state for data stored in the row according to a usage of the data, the discard state being positive for data to be read only once and negative for data to be read more than once. The data is read from the row and written back to the row if the discard state is negative. If the discard state is positive, then the method returns without writing the data back to the row.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. Enacted in memory-control logic of a computer configured for neural-network processing and coupled operatively to read-destructive computer memory, a method comprising: receiving a read instruction; determining a read address in the computer memory corresponding to the read instruction, the read address referencing a cell within a row of the computer memory; determining a discard state for data stored in the row according to a usage of the data in a neural network, the discard state being positive for data to be read only once and negative for data to be read more than once, wherein the discard state is determined based at least in part on a dynamically stored row label corresponding to the row; reading the data from the row; writing the data back to the row if the discard state is negative; and returning without writing the data back to the row if the discard state is positive.
Facts
- Company
- Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
- Official title
- Writeback control for read-destructive computer memory
- Patent number
- US12744078B2
- Application number
- 18715953
- Filed
- Oct 25, 2022
- Granted
- Sep 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 18
Classified under
G11C 11/4096 Physics & computingG11C 11/408 Physics & computingG11C 11/54 Physics & computingMore from Microsoft in Chips & hardware
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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.