Fast unaligned memory access. In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, a computing device includes a load queue memory structure configured to queue load operations and a store queue memory structure configured to queue store operations. The computing device includes also includes at least one bit configured to indicate the presence of an unaligned address component for an entry of said load queue memory structure, and at least one bit configured to indicate the presence of an unaligned address component for an entry of said store queue memory structure. The load queue memory may also include memory configured to indicate data forwarding of an unaligned address component from said store queue memory structure to said load queue memory structure.

An apparatus, memory controller, memory module and method are provided for controlling data transfer in memory. The apparatus comprises a memory controller and a plurality of memory modules. The memory controller orchestrates direct data transfer by issuing a first direct transfer command to a first memory module and a second direct transfer command to a second memory module. The first memory module is responsive to receipt of the first direct transfer command to directly transmit the data for receipt by the second memory module in a way that bypasses the memory controller. The second memory module is responsive to the second direct transfer command to receive the data from the first memory module directly, rather than via the memory controller. One of the first and second memory modules may be used as a cache for data stored in the other memory module. The direct data transfer may comprise a data move or a data copy operation. This provides an efficient mechanism for transferring data between multiple memory modules coupled to the same memory controller.

Disclosed is a method, apparatus, and/or computer program product for reducing latency in a processor with regard to the execution of noncacheable operations that includes receiving noncacheable operations from one or both of the level 2 cache and a level 3 cache, sending the noncacheable operations to a noncacheable unit (NCU) associated with a core of the processor, executing the noncacheable operations by the NCU, and sending results of the executed noncacheable operations to a host bridge for output to an input/out device. The noncacheable operations bypass the core of the processor.

Copy source to target operations may be selectively and preemptively undertaken in advance of source destage operations. In another aspect, logic detects sequential writes including large block writes to point-in-time copy sources. In response, destage tasks on the associated point-in-time copy targets are started which include in one embodiment, stride-aligned copy source to target operations which copy unmodified data from the point-in-time copy sources to the point-in-time copy targets in alignment with the strides of the target. As a result, when write data of write operations is destaged to the point-in-time copy sources, such source destages do not need to wait for copy source to target operations since they have already been performed. In addition, the copy source to target operations may be stride-aligned with respect to the stride boundaries of the point-in-time copy targets. Other features and aspects may be realized, depending upon the particular application.

A data management method for a processor to which a first cache, a second cache, and a behavior history table are allocated, includes tracking reuse information learning cache lines stored in at least one of the first cache and the second cache; recording the reuse information in the behavior history table; and determining a placement policy with respect to future operations that are to be performed on a plurality of cache lines stored in the first cache and the second cache, based on the reuse information in the behavior history table.

A data management method for a computer system including at least one processor and at least a first cache, a second cache, a victim buffer (VB), and a memory allocated to the at least one processor, includes selecting a victim cache line to be evicted from the first cache; finding a VB location corresponding to the victim cache line from a set of the VB; copying data of the victim cache line to a data field of the VB location; copying a backward pointer (BP) associated with the victim cache line to a BP field of the VB location; and reclaiming victim space of the first cache using the VB.

A storage controller for cache management that includes a cache memory and a cache management module. The cache management module to, on receipt of region specification requests from hosts, extract from the region specification requests cache rules for management of regions of data storage of a storage array, and on receipt of data operation requests from hosts, process the data operation requests based on the extracted cache rules.

A system includes reception of a first request to synchronize content from the persistent memory system to the volatile memory system, and, in response to the first request, retrieval of the content from the persistent memory system and store the content in the volatile memory system. A create, read, update or delete operation is performed on the content stored in the volatile memory system to generate modified content in the volatile memory system, a second request to synchronize content is received from the volatile memory system to the persistent memory system, and, in response to the second request, the modified content is retrieved from the volatile memory system and the modified content is stored in the persistent memory system.

A computing apparatus, including: a processor; a pointer to a counter memory location; and a lazy increment counter engine to: receive a stimulus to update the counter; and lazy increment the counter including issuing a weakly-ordered increment directive to the pointer.

Cache behavior for secure memory repartitioning systems is described. Implementations may include a processing core and a memory controller coupled between the processor core and a memory device. The processor core is to receive a memory access request to a page in the memory device, the memory access request comprising a first guarded attribute (GA) indicator indicating whether the page is a secure page belonging to an enclave, determine whether the first GA indicator matches a second GA indicator in a cache line entry corresponding to the page, the cache line entry comprised in a cache, and responsive to a determination that the first GA indicator does not match the second GA indicator, apply an eviction policy to the cache line entry based on whether the cache line is indicated as a dirty cache line and accessing second data in the memory device for the page.