Draining operation for draining dirty cache lines to persistent memory

    公开(公告)号:US12216589B2

    公开(公告)日:2025-02-04

    申请号:US18044499

    申请日:2021-08-16

    Applicant: Arm Limited

    Abstract: An apparatus has processing circuitry with support for transactional memory, and a cache hierarchy comprising at least two levels of cache. In response to a draining trigger event having potential to cause loss of state stored in at least one further level cache beyond a predetermined level cache in which speculative store data generated by a transaction is marked as speculative until the transaction is committed, draining circuitry performs a draining operation to scan a subset of the cache hierarchy to identify dirty cache lines and write data associated with the dirty cache lines to persistent memory. The subset of the cache hierarchy includes the at least one further level cache. In the draining operation, speculative store data marked as speculative in the predetermined level cache is prevented from being drained to the persistent memory.

    Exception handling in transactions

    公开(公告)号:US11481290B2

    公开(公告)日:2022-10-25

    申请号:US17046396

    申请日:2019-04-08

    Applicant: Arm Limited

    Abstract: An apparatus and a method of operating a data processing apparatus, and simulators thereof, are disclosed. Data processing circuitry performs data processing operations in response to instructions, where some sets of instructions may be defined as a transaction which are to be performed atomically with respect to other operations performed by the data processing circuitry. When a synchronous exception occurs during a transaction the transaction is aborted and an exception counter is incremented. When the counter reaches a threshold value a transaction failure signal is generated, allowing, if appropriate a response to this number of exceptions causing transaction aborts to be carried out.

    Monitoring memory locations to identify whether data stored at the memory locations has been modified

    公开(公告)号:US12236091B2

    公开(公告)日:2025-02-25

    申请号:US18040577

    申请日:2021-08-05

    Applicant: Arm Limited

    Abstract: An apparatus comprises address storage circuitry to store indications of a first set of memory locations of a shared memory; a capacity indicator to indicate whether a capacity of the address storage circuitry has been reached, and monitoring circuitry to monitor the first set of memory locations and a second set of memory locations of the shared memory, identified in further storage circuitry to identify whether data stored at either set of memory locations has been modified. The monitoring circuitry is responsive to determining that the data has been modified to generate an indication that the data has been modified, and processing circuitry receives the indication and executes a monitor-address instruction specifying an address of a new memory location in the shared memory to update the address storage circuitry or the further storage circuitry to indicate the new address, depending on the capacity indicator.

    Monitoring utilization of transactional processing resource

    公开(公告)号:US10810039B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-10-20

    申请号:US15537015

    申请日:2015-11-24

    Applicant: ARM LIMITED

    Abstract: An apparatus (2) may have a processing element (4) for performing data access operations to access data from at least one storage device (10, 12, 14). The processing element may have at least one transactional processing resource (10, 18) supporting processing of a transaction in which data accesses are performed speculatively following a transaction start event and for which the speculative results are committed in response to a transaction end event. Monitoring circuitry (30) captures monitoring data indicating a degree of utilization of the transactional processing resource (10, 18) when processing the transaction.

    AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM, DEVICE AND PROCESS
    6.
    发明申请

    公开(公告)号:US20200257787A1

    公开(公告)日:2020-08-13

    申请号:US16271760

    申请日:2019-02-08

    Applicant: Arm Limited

    Abstract: Briefly, example methods, apparatuses, and/or articles of manufacture are disclosed that may be implemented, in whole or in part, using one or more processing devices to facilitate and/or support one or more operations and/or techniques for authenticating an identity of a human subject. In particular, some embodiments are directed to techniques for authentication of an identity of a human subject as being an identity of a particular unique individual based, at least in part, on involuntary responses by the human subject to sensory stimuli.

    Dynamic saving of registers in transactions

    公开(公告)号:US10678595B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-06-09

    申请号:US15324082

    申请日:2015-06-11

    Applicant: ARM LIMITED

    Abstract: A data processing apparatus comprises a plurality of data storage elements, each configured to store data. Mask storage circuitry stores a mask and processing circuitry executes one or more instructions. A data saver is configured, in response to a transactional start instruction, to select a subset of the data storage elements and to save a backup of the subset of the data storage elements. Mask control circuitry then updates the mask to indicate the subset of the data storage elements selected by the data saver. Finally, a monitor detects write or write attempts made to one of the data storage elements not indicated by the mask. Accordingly, a user need not save all data storage elements (e.g. registers) in a system or specify precisely which data storage elements must be saved in order to perform a transaction. Instead, the set of data storage elements that must be saved can be determined and specified dynamically, and the system can respond if an attempt is made to write to a data storage element that has not been saved or backed up.

    Switching between thread mode and transaction mode for a set of registers

    公开(公告)号:US10572299B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-02-25

    申请号:US15531836

    申请日:2015-11-24

    Applicant: ARM LIMITED

    Abstract: An apparatus (2) has processing circuitry (6) having access to a first processing resource (20-0) and a second processing resource (20-3). A first thread can be processed using the first processing resource. In a thread mode the second processing resource (20-3) can be used to process a second thread while in a transaction mode the second processing resource (20-3) can be used to process a transaction of the first thread comprising a number of speculatively performed operations for which results are committed at the end of the transaction. By sharing resources for supporting additional threads and supporting transactions, circuit area and power consumption can be reduced.

    Transactional compare-and-discard instruction

    公开(公告)号:US11422808B2

    公开(公告)日:2022-08-23

    申请号:US17258287

    申请日:2019-05-09

    Applicant: Arm Limited

    Abstract: An apparatus comprising: processing circuitry to process threads of data processing; and transactional memory support circuitry to support execution of a transaction within a thread processed by the processing circuitry. In response to a transactional compare-and-discard instruction executed within a given transaction, specifying a target address and a compare value, the processing circuitry loads a target data value from a memory location corresponding to the target address; sets at least one condition status indication depending on a result of comparing the target data value and the compare value; and discards the target data value without adding the target address to a working set of addresses tracked for the given transaction. This is useful for enabling thread level speculation to be implemented on a transactional memory architecture.

Patent Agency Ranking