Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
327 words
A tag control circuit for a memory access control apparatus in a digital computer system, connected between a central processor and a main storage unit, the central processor including a buffer storage temporarily storing data for use therein and an internal tag control circuit for managing the status of the buffer storage, the memory access control apparatus processing access requests to the main storage, said tag control circuit comprising: tag information storing and updating means for storing and updating tag information indicating status of the buffer storage; necessity operation determination means for determining whether an invalidation operation for invalidation of the tag information and whether a transmission operation sending invalidation information to the central processor are necessary; first register pipeline means for storing a plurality of access requests originally issued from the central processor, each of the access requests corresponding to a data block in the buffer storage represented by the tag information operated on by said necessity operation determination means; second register pipeline means for storing a plurality of invalidation execute information indicating, as previously determined by said necessity operation determination means, whether the invalidation operation should be applied to the tag information corresponding to the access requests stored in said first register pipeline means and for outputting the invalidation execute information to said tag information storing and updating means; and selection means for selecting a selected access request from among a new read access request from the central processor and the access requests in said first register pipeline means and outputting the selected access request to said necessity operation determination means in accordance with a predetermined priority order in which read access requests have the highest priority, said tag information storing and updating means effecting the invalidation operation and the transmission operation sending the invalidation information to the central processor in dependence upon the invalidation execute information stored in said second register pipeline means and upon the determining performed by said necessity operation determination means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
327 words
A tag control circuit for a memory access control apparatus in a digital computer system, connected between a central processor and a main storage unit, the central processor including a buffer storage temporarily storing data for use therein and an internal tag control circuit for managing the status of the buffer storage, the memory access control apparatus processing access requests to the main storage, said tag control circuit comprising: tag information storing and updating means for storing and updating tag information indicating status of the buffer storage; necessity operation determination means for determining whether an invalidation operation for invalidation of the tag information and whether a transmission operation sending invalidation information to the central processor are necessary; first register pipeline means for storing a plurality of access requests originally issued from the central processor, each of the access requests corresponding to a data block in the buffer storage represented by the tag information operated on by said necessity operation determination means; second register pipeline means for storing a plurality of invalidation execute information indicating, as previously determined by said necessity operation determination means, whether the invalidation operation should be applied to the tag information corresponding to the access requests stored in said first register pipeline means and for outputting the invalidation execute information to said tag information storing and updating means; and selection means for selecting a selected access request from among a new read access request from the central processor and the access requests in said first register pipeline means and outputting the selected access request to said necessity operation determination means in accordance with a predetermined priority order in which read access requests have the highest priority, said tag information storing and updating means effecting the invalidation operation and the transmission operation sending the invalidation information to the central processor in dependence upon the invalidation execute information stored in said second register pipeline means and upon the determining performed by said necessity operation determination means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
121 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 1, wherein the buffer storage has a number of data blocks, wherein said tag information storing and updating means includes a number of register groups, the number of register groups being equal to the number of data blocks in the buffer storage, wherein said necessity determination means includes a number of circuits for determining whether the invalidation operation is necessary, the number of circuits being equal to the number of said register groups in said tag information storing and updating circuit, and wherein said second register pipeline means includes a number of registers, the number of which is equal to the number of said register groups in said tag information storing and updating circuit.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
91 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 2, wherein said first register pipeline means includes a number of stages of registers connected in series with each other and in parallel to a selector, and wherein said second register pipeline means includes a number of stages of registers connected in series with each other and in parallel to a selector, the number of stages of registers being the same as the number of stages of said first register pipeline means, said first and second register pipeline means being operated using synchronous timing.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
57 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 3, wherein the central processor outputs a predetermined number of access requests in a predetermined period, and wherein the number of the steps of registers in said first register pipeline means is defined by the number of read access requests output consecutively in the predetermined period by said central processor.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
54 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 1, wherein said tag control circuit further comprises third register pipeline means for storing only write access requests for the main storage before supplying the store access requests to said necessity operation determination means, said third register pipeline means having an output connected to said selection means.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
51 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 5, wherein said selection means determines the selected access request by applying priority as follows: a new read access request before an access request stored in said first register pipeline means, and thereafter a store access request stored in said third register pipeline means.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
74 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 1, wherein said tag control circuit further comprises redundancy adding means for receiving faulty data block detections from the central processor, for performing error discrimination in dependence upon a total number of faulty data block detections within a predetermined period and for outputting data block invalidation signals to said tag information storing and updating means and said second register pipeline means in response to the error discrimination.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
51 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 7, wherein said redundancy adding means includes a counter for counting an error number of faulty data blocks in the buffer storage, and wherein said redundancy adding means outputs an invalidation signal when the error number exceeds a predetermined value during the predetermined period.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
23 words
A tag control circuit according to claim 8, wherein said redundancy adding means discriminates error for individual data blocks of the buffer storage.