阅读说明：本技术 基于访问效率对存储器请求进行排序 (Ordering memory requests based on access efficiency ) 是由 S·J·凯尔 G·S·马修斯 L·N·M·努卡拉 T·玛古迪鲁维加亚拉吉 K·L·熊 Y· 于 2019-08-23 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种装置,其实施方案包括存储器电路和存储器控制器电路。所述存储器控制器电路可包括写入请求队列。所述存储器控制器电路可被配置为接收访问所述存储器电路的存储器请求,并且确定所述存储器请求包括读取请求还是写入请求。所接收的读取请求可被调度以用于执行,而所接收的写入请求可存储在所述写入请求队列中。所述存储器控制器电路可基于实现指定存储器访问效率并且基于存储在所述写入请求队列中的写入请求的数量,对已调度存储器请求进行重新排序。(An apparatus, embodiments of which include a memory circuit and a memory controller circuit. The memory controller circuitry may include a write request queue. The memory controller circuitry may be configured to receive a memory request to access the memory circuitry and determine whether the memory request comprises a read request or a write request. Received read requests may be scheduled for execution, while received write requests may be stored in the write request queue. The memory controller circuitry may reorder the scheduled memory requests based on achieving specified memory access efficiency and based on a number of write requests stored in the write request queue.)

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory circuit; and

a memory controller circuit comprising a write request queue configured to:

receiving a memory request to access the memory circuitry and determining whether the memory request comprises a read request or a write request;

scheduling the received read request for execution;

storing the received write request in the write request queue; and

the scheduled memory requests are reordered based on achieving a specified memory access efficiency and based on a number of write requests stored in the write request queue.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory controller circuit is further configured to determine a current memory access efficiency in response to completion of a read sequence and a write sequence, wherein the read sequence corresponds to execution of a plurality of read requests and the write sequence corresponds to execution of a plurality of write requests, and wherein the current memory access efficiency is determined based on a ratio of active clock cycles to total clock cycles during the completed read sequence and write sequence, wherein an active clock cycle is a clock cycle used to process memory requests.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the memory controller circuitry is further configured to modify a number of memory requests to be performed in subsequent read and write sequences based on a comparison of the current memory access efficiency to the specified memory access efficiency.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the memory controller circuitry is further configured to schedule at least one partial write memory request to be performed between a read sequence and a write sequence.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory controller circuit is further configured to schedule a subset of write requests included in the write request queue in response to determining that a number of write requests in the write request queue satisfies a threshold number of requests.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the memory controller circuitry is further configured to prioritize read requests over write requests by scheduling the plurality of write requests to be executed after executing a plurality of read requests.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory controller circuit is further configured to prioritize a particular write request over a different write request in response to determining that an amount of data to be stored by the particular write request is greater than an amount of data to be stored by the different write request.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a memory controller, a memory request to access a memory circuit, wherein the memory controller includes a write request queue and a scheduled request buffer;

processing, by the memory controller, the memory request according to whether the memory request is a read request or a write request;

determining an efficiency value based on activity of a communication bus during execution of a plurality of read requests and a plurality of write requests, wherein the communication bus is coupled between the memory controller and at least one memory circuit;

scheduling the memory requests based on the efficiency rate and based on a number of write requests stored in the write request queue; and

the scheduled read and write requests are executed by the memory circuit.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the processing comprises adding to the write request queue in response to the memory request being a write request.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising scheduling a plurality of write requests from the write request queue for execution in response to determining that the number of write requests in the write request queue is greater than a threshold number.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the processing comprises scheduling the memory request for execution in response to the memory request being a read request.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

completing a read sequence by executing a scheduled number of consecutive read requests;

completing a write sequence by executing a scheduled number of consecutive write requests; and

the efficiency rate is determined in response to completing a read sequence and a write sequence.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising adjusting a number of memory requests to be performed in subsequent read and write sequences based on the determined efficiency value.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising prioritizing write requests based on an amount of data to be stored in the memory circuit by each write request.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a system interface coupled to at least one processor;

an instruction queue configured to store one or more memory requests prior to execution;

a write request queue; and

an arbitration circuit configured to:

receiving a memory request from the system interface and determining whether the memory request comprises a read request or a write request;

placing the received read request into the instruction queue;

placing the received write request into the write request queue; and

reordering memory requests placed in the instruction queue based on achieving a specified level of memory access efficiency.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the arbitration circuit is further configured to determine a current level of memory access efficiency in response to completion of a read sequence and a write sequence, wherein the read sequence corresponds to execution of a plurality of read requests and the write sequence corresponds to execution of a plurality of write requests, and wherein the current level is determined based on a percentage of total clock cycles occurring during the completed read sequence and write sequence for processing memory requests.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the arbitration circuitry is further configured to adjust a number of memory requests to be performed in subsequent read and write sequences based on a comparison of the current level to the specified level.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the arbitration circuitry is further configured to place at least one partial write memory request to be performed between a read sequence and a write sequence in the instruction queue.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the arbitration circuit is further configured to place a subset of write requests included in the write request queue in the instruction queue in response to determining that a number of write requests in the write request queue satisfies a threshold number of requests, wherein a scheduled read request is executed in preference to the subset of write requests.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the arbitration circuit is further configured to prioritize a particular write request over a different write request in response to determining that an amount of data to be stored by the particular write request is greater than an amount of data to be stored by the different write request.

Technical Field

Embodiments described herein relate to the field of computing systems, and more particularly, to management of memory requests by a memory controller in a computing system.

Background

A computer system, including a system on a chip (SoC), includes a processor and a plurality of memory circuits that store software programs or applications and data that are operated on by the processor. Such memories may vary in storage capacity as well as access time. In some computing systems, some memory circuits are coupled to the processor via a memory controller circuit that communicates with the processor via a communication link or other communication network.

During operation, a processor, which may include a processor core, a graphics processor, or the like, transmits a request to access a memory controller via a communication link. The memory controller receives the request and arbitrates access to the memory circuits for the request. When relaying a particular request from the processor to the memory circuit, the memory controller circuit waits until the memory circuit fulfills the particular request. To implement a particular request, the memory circuit may send the requested data or acknowledge signal to the memory controller circuit, which in turn relays the data or signal onto the requesting processor.

Disclosure of Invention

Broadly speaking, the present disclosure contemplates a system, an apparatus, and a method, where the apparatus includes a memory circuit and a memory controller circuit. The memory controller circuitry may include a write request queue. The memory controller circuitry may be configured to receive a memory request to access the memory circuitry and determine whether the memory request comprises a read request or a write request. Received read requests may be scheduled for execution, while received write requests may be stored in the write request queue. The memory controller circuitry may reorder the scheduled memory requests based on achieving specified memory access efficiency and based on a number of write requests stored in the write request queue.

In some implementations, the memory controller circuitry may be configured to determine a current memory access efficiency in response to completion of the read sequence and the write sequence. The read sequence may correspond to the execution of multiple read requests, while the write sequence may correspond to the execution of multiple write requests. The current memory access efficiency may be determined based on a ratio of clock cycles used to process memory requests to a total clock cycles occurring during the completed read and write sequences.

In particular implementations, the memory controller circuitry may be configured to modify a number of memory requests to be executed in subsequent read and write sequences based on a comparison of the current memory access efficiency to the specified memory access efficiency. In various embodiments, the memory controller circuitry may be configured to schedule the at least one partial write memory request to be performed between a read sequence and a write sequence.

In some embodiments, the memory controller circuitry may be configured to schedule a subset of write requests included in the write request queue in response to determining that a number of write requests in the write request queue satisfies a threshold number of requests. In particular implementations, the memory controller circuitry may be configured to prioritize read requests over write requests by scheduling the plurality of write requests to be performed after performing a plurality of read requests. In various embodiments, the memory controller circuitry may be configured to prioritize a particular write request over a different write request in response to determining that an amount of data to be stored by the particular write request is greater than an amount of data to be stored by the different write request.

Drawings

The following detailed description makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which are now briefly described.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of a memory system including a memory controller circuit and a memory circuit.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a memory controller circuit and a memory circuit, where the memory circuit includes a plurality of memory devices.

FIG. 3 depicts an embodiment of a scheduled request buffer and a diagram representing a timeline for performing buffered memory requests.

Figure 4 presents three tables representing different states of a scheduled request buffer.

FIG. 5 illustrates another embodiment of a scheduled request buffer and a corresponding diagram depicting a timeline for performing buffered memory requests.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an embodiment of a method for scheduling memory requests by a memory controller circuit.

Figure 7 presents a flowchart of an embodiment of a method for determining an efficiency rate corresponding to execution of a memory request.

FIG. 8 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer system.

Fig. 9 illustrates a block diagram depicting an exemplary computer-readable medium, in accordance with some embodiments.

While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. As used throughout this patent application, the word "may" is used in an allowed sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include", "including", and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.

Various units, circuits, or other components may be described as "configured to" perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, "configured to" is a broad expression generally meaning "having a structure of" circuitry "that performs one or more tasks during operation. As such, the unit/circuit/component may be configured to perform a task even when the unit/circuit/component is not currently on. In general, the circuitry forming the structure corresponding to "configured to" may comprise hardware circuitry. Similarly, for convenience in description, various units/circuits/components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such description should be construed to include the phrase "configured to". It is expressly intended that the unit/circuit/component configured to perform one or more tasks is not to be construed as requiring that the unit/circuit/component be interpreted as 35u.s.c. § 112 paragraph f. More generally, recitation of any element is explicitly intended to not invoke an interpretation of that element in 35u.s.c. § 112 f paragraph f unless a language specifically reciting "means for … …" or "step for … …" is used.

As used herein, the term "based on" is used to describe one or more factors that affect the determination. This term does not exclude that there may be additional factors that may influence the determination. That is, the determination may be based on specified factors only or on specified factors and other unspecified factors. Consider the phrase "determine a based on B. This phrase specifies that B is a factor used to determine a or that B affects a determination. This phrase does not exclude that the determination of a may also be based on some other factor such as C. The phrase is also intended to encompass embodiments in which a is determined based on B alone. The phrase "based on" is thus synonymous with the phrase "based, at least in part, on".

Detailed Description

In a computer system, a hierarchy of memory circuits is used to store program instructions and data for use by functional circuit blocks within the computer system. Such functional circuit blocks may include processors, processor cores, graphics cores, audio processing circuits, network processing circuits, and so forth. Some of the memory circuits, such as cache memory circuits, may be coupled directly to the functional circuit blocks to provide low-density, fast-access dedicated storage for the functional blocks. Other memory circuits are shared among multiple functional circuit blocks to allow the functional circuit blocks to access a greater amount of memory space. To facilitate such sharing of memory circuitry, memory controller circuitry may be employed to manage access to the memory circuitry.

The memory controller circuitry receives requests to access the memory circuitry from the functional circuit blocks. Such requests may include requests to retrieve previously stored data from the memory circuit (commonly referred to as "read requests") and requests to store data in the memory circuit (commonly referred to as "write requests"). In some cases, read requests and write requests may be combined to form "read-modify-write" requests.

When a memory controller circuit receives a request to access a memory circuit, each request is placed in execution order relative to other received requests in a process called scheduling. The memory controller circuitry may determine the execution order according to various criteria. For example, certain types of requests to access memory may have a higher priority and, therefore, be placed before requests having a lower priority in execution order. In some cases, scheduling according to various criteria may result in periods of time during which the memory circuitry is underutilized, thereby reducing the efficiency of the memory subsystem. As described and used herein, memory subsystem "efficiency" refers to any measure of the utilization of the memory subsystem. One common measure of efficiency is the ratio of active (i.e., non-idle) memory cycles to the total possible memory cycles that occur in a given amount of time.

Inefficient use of memory circuits in a computer system can adversely affect the performance of the computer system. For example, retrieving video data from memory in an inefficient manner may result in incorrectly displayed video. In addition, inefficient memory access may result in software or program instructions not being available to the processor or processor core in a timely manner, resulting in a pause or slow degradation of computer system performance. The embodiments illustrated in the figures and described below may provide techniques for scheduling memory access requests while maintaining desired efficiencies, thereby improving computer system performance.

A block diagram of an embodiment of a memory system including a memory controller circuit and a memory circuit is shown in fig. 1. As shown, the memory system 100 includes a memory controller circuit 110 coupled to a memory circuit 120 via a communication bus 180. Memory controller circuitry 110 also includes a scheduled request buffer 130 and a write request queue 140. In various embodiments, memory controller circuitry 110 and memory circuitry 120 may be included on the same integrated circuit or may be implemented in separate integrated circuits. Memory controller circuit 110 may be a particular implementation of a state machine or other sequential logic circuit, and memory circuit 120 may be any suitable type of memory circuit, such as a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), or the like.

As shown, the memory controller circuitry 110 is configured to receive a memory request to access the memory circuitry and determine whether the memory request includes a read request or a write request. The memory controller circuitry 110 is further configured to schedule the received read requests for execution or to store the received write requests in the write request queue 140. Additionally, memory controller circuitry 110 is configured to reorder the scheduled memory requests based on implementing the specified memory access efficiency 160, and further based on the number of write requests stored in write request queue 140.

As shown, memory controller circuitry 110 may generate one or more memory commands to be sent to memory circuitry 120 via communication bus 180 based on the read request. Such commands may be placed into the scheduled request buffer 130. In various embodiments, scheduled request buffer 130 may be a particular implementation of a register file or other suitable storage circuitry configured to store commands 134 and 136. In some cases, memory controller circuitry 110 may place the read request or a command associated with the read request in the next available entry in scheduled request buffer 130. In other cases, memory controller circuitry 110 may compare the addresses included in memory request 150 and schedule read requests for execution with other read requests that access information on the same memory page referenced by the included addresses.

In the case of write requests, memory controller circuitry 110 may continue to store received write requests into write request queue 140 until the number of queued write requests reaches a threshold number, as shown by threshold 141. During this time, memory controller circuitry 110 may continue to schedule and execute read requests. After the number of queued write requests reaches the threshold 141, one or more of the queued write requests (such as write requests 144 and 146) are scheduled by placing the write requests into the scheduled request buffer 130 for execution in a scheduled order.

As described in more detail below, in some implementations, memory controller circuit 110 may determine the current memory access efficiency 170 on communication bus 180 after completing a "read sequence" (a series of read memory accesses that do not include writes) and a "write sequence" (a series of write memory accesses). When the current memory access efficiency is calculated (after completion of the single read sequence and the single write sequence, or otherwise), the efficiency may then be compared to the specified memory access efficiency 160 as part of the reordering process. In various embodiments, the specified memory access efficiency 160 may be specified as part of the design of the memory system 100, may be determined by hardware based on current processing requirements, or may even be set by software.

As described above, the memory controller circuitry 110 is coupled to the memory circuitry 120 via the communication bus 180. In various embodiments, communication bus 180 may include a local clock signal, as well as dedicated lines for commands, addresses, and data. Such data lines may be bidirectional, allowing either memory controller circuit 110 or memory circuit 120 to drive data onto the data lines. Note that the memory controller circuit 100 and the memory circuit 120 cannot drive the data lines simultaneously. Each time a read operation is transitioned to a write operation (or vice versa), multiple cycles may be required to allow the data lines included in communication bus 180 to reach a state where the new device may drive the data lines. For example, when switching from a read operation to a write operation, memory controller circuit 110 must wait to begin sending data to be written until memory circuit 120 has completed sending data associated with the read operation.

It is noted that the memory controller circuit 110 shown in fig. 1 is merely an example. The illustration of fig. 1 is simplified to highlight features relevant to the present disclosure. In other embodiments, memory controller circuitry 110 may include additional circuit blocks, such as interface circuitry configured to send and receive data via, for example, communication bus 180.

As depicted in FIG. 1, write requests may be stored in a write request queue. Moving to FIG. 2, an embodiment of a memory controller utilizing a write request queue is shown. Memory controller circuit 210 includes a system interface 211, an arbitration circuit 212, an instruction queue 230, and a write request queue 240. The memory controller circuit 210 is coupled to the memory circuit 220 via a data bus 280 and a bus clock 282. The memory circuit 220 includes memory devices 225a-225d, which in turn include a corresponding plurality of memory banks 227 and memory pages 229 (shown only for memory device 225a for clarity). In some embodiments, memory controller circuitry 210, instruction queue 230, write request queue 240, and memory circuitry 220 may correspond to memory controller circuitry 110, scheduled request buffer 130, write request queue 140, and memory circuitry 120 in FIG. 1. The bus clock 282 and the communication bus 280 may collectively correspond to the communication bus 180.

As shown, the memory circuit 220 includes four memory devices 225a-225d (collectively referred to as memory devices 225). Each of the memory devices 225 includes a plurality of memory banks 227 (for clarity, memory banks 227 and memory pages 229 are shown only for memory device 225A). In various embodiments, the number of memory banks may be the same or may vary between memory devices 225. For a given one of the memory devices 227, different memory banks may be capable of fulfilling memory requests simultaneously or in an overlapping order. However, each memory device 227 may be limited to sending or receiving commands, addresses, and data for a single memory request at a time. Each of the memory banks 227 includes a plurality of memory pages 229. Note that a "memory page" (also referred to herein as a "page") corresponds to an amount of data that can be accessed from a single memory bank 227 using a single read command or write command. In some implementations, a memory page can correspond to one or more physical rows of memory cells in a memory array. In other embodiments, a memory page may correspond to a different physical or logical organization of memory cells, such as one or more columns of memory cells, or a plurality of memory cells that may be addressed with a portion of a memory address value.

Similar to memory controller circuitry 110, memory controller circuitry 210 includes circuitry for receiving, decoding, scheduling, and executing received memory requests. As shown, system interface 211 receives memory requests to access memory circuitry 220 from processing circuitry included in a computing system that includes memory controller 210. The arbitration circuit 212 receives the memory request from the system interface 211 and determines whether the memory request includes a read request or a write request. The arbitration circuit 212 places the received read request into the instruction queue 230. In some implementations, the arbitration circuit 212 can schedule read requests with other read requests having similar memory addresses. For example, read requests having memory addresses corresponding to the same memory page 229 may be scheduled together, allowing several read requests to be implemented with a single activation of the common memory page 229. As another example, in embodiments where memory controller circuitry 210 may send concurrent requests to different memory banks or devices, read requests having addresses to different memory banks 227 or to different memory devices 225 may be scheduled together.

It should be noted that as used herein, the terms "concurrent" and "parallel" are used to refer to events that may occur during overlapping points in time. The use of "concurrent" or "parallel" is not intended to imply that events begin and end simultaneously, but does not preclude such occurrences.

The arbitration circuit 212 places the received write request into the write request queue 240. In a computing system in which memory controller circuitry 210 may be used, read requests may be performed in preference to write requests. Read requests may be issued for data to be used by an active application or process, and thus, the amount of time used to retrieve data and fulfill requests may affect the performance of the application or process. In contrast, a write request may include data that was previously used by an application or process to be used at a later time. Further, the data included in the write request may be currently stored in the cache memory and thus available to the application or process even though the write request has not yet been fulfilled.

As shown, communication bus 280 is a combined input/output (I/O) bus for transferring both read and write data. When switching from a read command to a write command, data associated with the read command is sent from memory circuit 220 to memory controller circuit 210. The data is received by the memory controller circuitry 210 before the I/O bus is reconfigured to transfer the data in the opposite direction for a write command. The opposite is true for switching from a write command to a read command, e.g., data associated with a write command is sent over the I/O bus before any read data can be sent by the memory circuit 220.

Thus, toggling the communication bus 280 back and forth between a read request and a write request generates a cycle of the bus clock 282 that may not be used for the next memory command since it is waiting for the completion of the data transfer. These unused clock cycles may result in a reduction in the efficiency of the memory controller circuit 210. To achieve the desired efficiency goals, memory controller circuit 210 may adjust the number of read requests processed during a single read sequence and the number of write requests processed during a single write sequence. It is noted that a given read sequence or write sequence may include any suitable number of corresponding memory requests, including in some cases zero requests.

As described above, the number of read requests and write requests scheduled for the respective read sequence and write sequence is determined based on the current memory access efficiency. After the read sequence and subsequent write sequence have completed, the memory controller circuit 210 determines a value for the current memory access efficiency based on a ratio of the number of cycles of the bus clock 282 used to process the memory request to a total number of cycles of the bus clock 282 that occur during the completed read sequence and write sequence. Memory controller circuitry 210 may then compare the current memory access efficiency to the specified memory access efficiency to determine a current delta with respect to the specified efficiency. Memory controller circuitry 210 then reorders the scheduled memory requests based on achieving the specified memory access efficiency.

In addition to adjusting the number of requests processed during a given sequence, memory controller circuitry 210 may also employ one or more request ordering techniques in order to achieve a specified memory access efficiency. For example, the memory controller circuit 210 may modify the number of memory requests to be performed in subsequent read and write sequences. Memory controller circuitry 210 may schedule at least one partial write memory request (i.e., read-modify-write request) to be performed between a read sequence and a write sequence. Another technique includes prioritizing a particular write request over a different write request in response to determining that an amount of data to be stored by the particular write request is greater than an amount of data to be stored by the different write request. These techniques are described in more detail below.

By prioritizing read requests over write requests, the memory controller circuitry 210 may store received write requests into the write request queue 240, thereby freeing available entries in the instruction queue 230 for received read requests. Thus, under some conditions, a set of read and write sequences may include all read requests and no write requests. Thus, such prioritization of read requests may improve the performance of an active application or process by reducing the amount of time between issuing a read request and subsequently fulfilling the read request.

As shown, the arbitration circuit 212 stores the received write requests 244-258 in the write request queue 240. Once the number of queued write requests reaches a threshold number (as indicated by write requests 258 and threshold 241), arbitration circuitry 212 schedules a subset of the queued write requests by placing the subset into instruction queue 230. As shown in fig. 2, the subset includes write requests 244-246. However, in other embodiments, any suitable number of write requests may be included in the subset, including all write requests in the write request queue 240. To prioritize the read requests, the arbitration circuit 212 schedules the read requests 232 and 237 to be performed before the write requests 244 and 246. Read requests 232-237 form a read sequence and write requests 244-246 form a write sequence. The read sequence and the write sequence together form a set of read sequences and write sequences, also referred to herein as memory request sequences.

The value of threshold 241 may be set during design of memory controller circuit 210 or by software, such as an operating system executing in a computer system that includes memory controller circuit 210. In some embodiments, the threshold may be adjusted based on a comparison of the current memory access efficiency to the specified memory access efficiency.

The arbitration circuit 212 may prioritize a particular write request over a different write request in response to determining that the amount of data to be stored by the particular write request is greater than the amount of data to be stored by the different write request. As shown in instruction queue 230, write requests are scheduled in the order 246, 244, and then 245. For example, the write request 246 may be a request to store 128 bytes of data to one of the memory devices 225. However, the write requests 244 and 245 may each be requests to store 32 bytes of data, so the arbitration circuit 212 schedules these requests after the write request 246. Since the write requests 244 and 245 are for equal amounts of data, the arbitration circuit 212 may use other criteria to select the order of the two requests. For example, write request 244 may address a location in memory device 225 that is different from memory request 246, and thus may be scheduled to execute concurrently with write request 246. In addition, the arbitration circuit 212 may schedule the write request 244 before the write request 245 based on the order in which the two requests are received by the memory controller circuit 210.

To perform memory requests, memory controller circuitry 210 sends one or more memory commands corresponding to each request to memory circuitry 220. Memory circuit 220 executes memory commands corresponding to the scheduled read and write requests. The memory controller circuit 210 sends memory commands to the memory circuit 220 via the communication bus 280 and the bus clock 282. Memory controller circuit 210 utilizes bus clock 282 to control the flow of memory commands to memory circuit 220. Multiple cycles (referred to herein as "clock cycles" for simplicity) of the bus clock 228 occur between the time that execution of a particular memory request is initiated and the time that the generated memory command fulfills the memory request. The execution of some memory requests may include idle clock cycles between individual memory commands for fulfilling a particular memory request. Depending on the memory requests waiting in instruction queue 230, other memory commands may be executed during some or all of these otherwise idle clock cycles. The efficiency of memory controller circuit 210 may be determined based on a ratio or percentage of clock cycles actively used to execute memory commands relative to a total number of clock cycles occurring within a particular amount of time.

It is noted that the embodiment of fig. 2 is merely an example for demonstrating the disclosed concept. The illustrated number of read requests and write requests is chosen for clarity. In other embodiments, any suitable number of read requests and write requests may be included in the instruction queue and the write request queue.

Referring back to the description of FIG. 1, the memory controller circuitry determines a value representing the efficiency of the memory controller. In some embodiments, the efficiency may be determined by the number of memory commands executed in a particular amount of time.

Turning to FIG. 3, in an example for determining efficiency, an embodiment of a scheduled request buffer is shown along with a graph depicting memory command execution versus time. In various embodiments, the scheduled request buffer 330 may correspond to the scheduled request buffer 130 in FIG. 1, or to the instruction queue 230 in FIG. 2. As shown, scheduled request buffer 330 includes eight entries that are currently filled with eight corresponding memory requests 331-338. Each of memory requests 331-338 is a read request (indicated by the letter "R") or a write request (indicated by the letter "W"). Further, a memory page indicator is included that indicates which of a plurality of memory pages (p1-p5) the respective request accesses. For example, memory request 333 is a read request for information at a location in memory page 2.

As shown, diagram 300 depicts a timeline for executing memory commands corresponding to memory requests 331 and 338. Clock signal 315 corresponds to clock signal 115 in FIG. 1 and provides a timing reference to a memory controller (e.g., memory controller circuit 110) that executes memory requests 331 and 338. Execution signals 317 indicate activity in a command interface between memory controller circuitry 110 and memory circuitry, such as memory circuitry 120. The high signal indicates when a memory command is actively being executed and the low signal indicates when the command interface is idle. Note that while the command interface is idle, the memory controller and circuitry in the memory circuits may actively execute or otherwise process various memory requests and commands. Several letters are used with the execution signal 317 to indicate the type of memory command being executed. "a" indicates an activate command for preparing a corresponding memory page for one or more subsequent read or write commands. "r" indicates a read command for reading one or more bytes of information from an activated memory page. Similarly, "w" indicates a write command for writing one or more bytes of information to an activated page.

As previously described, a memory controller performs memory requests by issuing one or more memory commands to memory circuitry, which then executes the individual memory commands, thereby fulfilling the corresponding memory requests. Referring to FIG. 3, at time t1, memory request 331 is initiated by executing a page activate command for memory page 1. As shown, the memory circuit utilizes several cycles of clock signal 315 until time t2, at which time the information from page 1 may be read and sent to the memory controller. Memory request 331 is implemented by executing a read command at time t 2. Further, a second read command is executed to implement memory request 332 to access information on the same memory page. By time t3, memory requests 333 and 334 have been fulfilled. For the sake of brevity, a description of the memory commands used to implement memory requests 333 and 334 is omitted. At time t3, a memory request 335 is initiated by executing the activate command for page 4, and then several cycles of information of clock signal 315 are read.

As shown, the memory circuit 120 is configured to a read state for a read command or a write state for a write command, and several cycles of the clock signal 315 are used to reconfigure the memory circuit 120 from the read state to the write state. During this transition, memory read, write, and activate commands are not issued to the memory circuit 120. Between time t4 and time t5, a transition from the read state to the write state is performed. The read-to-write transition may end the read sequence including memory requests 331-335 and prepare memory circuit 120 for the write sequence including memory requests 336-338.

At time t5, memory circuit 120 is in the write state and performs a memory page activation to prepare page 3 for the write command. After a number of cycles of clock signal 315, at time t6, page 3 is ready to receive data as part of memory request 336. As shown, the write command of the memory circuit 120 may be different than the read command. While a read command may read a subset of the memory locations on the activated page, in some implementations, a write command may write all of the locations on the activated page. Thus, the write command may take more time to complete as more information is sent from memory controller circuit 110 to memory circuit 120.

After request 336 is completed, memory controller circuitry 110 and memory circuitry 120 may continue to fulfill memory requests 337 and 338. Memory controller circuitry 110 may determine the current memory access efficiency in response to completion of the read sequence and the write sequence. Current memory access efficiency is determined based on a ratio of clock cycles used to process memory requests to a total clock cycles occurring during a completed read sequence and write sequence. For example, a particular read sequence may include 48 read requests and a subsequent write sequence may include 16 write requests. Implementing these 64 memory requests may take 150 cycles of clock signal 315. During these 150 cycles, the execution signal 317 may indicate activity lasting 45 cycles, resulting in a rate of 0.30% or a current memory access efficiency of 30%. The memory controller circuit 110 may include a specified memory access efficiency that is set during design of the memory controller circuit 110 or by software, such as an operating system executing in a computer system that includes the memory controller circuit 110. The current memory access efficiency value of 30% is compared to the specified memory access efficiency value (e.g., 90%), thereby determining that the memory controller circuit 110 is operating at the specified target. Based on the comparison, the memory controller circuit 110 may modify one or more techniques for future sequences of memory requests. For example, the memory controller circuitry 110 may modify the number of memory requests included in a subsequent sequence of memory requests. Additional details are provided later in this disclosure.

Note that the embodiment of fig. 3 is an example. Fig. 3 is simplified to clearly disclose features of the embodiments. In other embodiments, additional commands may be executed to implement a read request or a write request. In some implementations, the order of the memory commands can be different. The number of clock cycles used to complete a particular memory command may be different than that shown in fig. 3.

In the description of FIG. 3, a memory controller is disclosed that adjusts a number of memory requests included in a subsequent sequence of memory requests in response to a comparison of a current memory access efficiency to a specified memory access efficiency. Turning to FIG. 4, several tables representing scheduled request buffers are used to illustrate examples of such adjustments. Scheduled request buffer 430a depicts the state of a scheduled request buffer (such as scheduled request buffer 130 in fig. 1) at a first point in time. Scheduled request buffers 430b and 430c depict possible states of the scheduled request buffers at a later point in time in response to two different values 431b and 431c of current memory access efficiency.

Scheduled request buffer 430a depicts the state of a scheduled request buffer having a read sequence and a write sequence, each having 32 corresponding memory requests. Once the scheduled requests are executed at the end of the read sequence and the write sequence, a memory controller circuit (such as memory controller circuit 110 in FIG. 1) determines the current memory access efficiency, as described above. Memory controller circuitry 110 may modify the number of memory requests to be executed in subsequent read and write sequences based on a comparison of the current memory access efficiency to the specified memory access efficiency.

As a first example, memory controller circuitry 110 determines a value of 60% for current memory access efficiency 431 b. If the specified memory access efficiency is 85%, the memory controller circuitry 110 may adjust the number of memory requests included in subsequent read and write sequences. This may occur if read requests are accessing different memory pages on one or two memory banks on a single memory device, thereby limiting the number of read requests that can be executed simultaneously. In contrast, queued write requests may span various memory devices, thereby enabling concurrent execution of multiple write requests. As shown in scheduled request buffer 430b, memory controller circuitry 110 reduces the number of read requests in the read sequence to 20 and increases the number of write requests in the write sequence to 40. Note that in addition to modifying the number of requests in each of the read sequence and the write sequence, the total number of memory requests is also modified for the combined sequence of memory requests.

In a second example, memory controller circuitry 110 determines a value of 95% for current memory access efficiency 431 c. Assuming the same specified memory access efficiency is 85%, memory controller circuit 110 may again adjust the number of memory requests in each of the read sequence and the write sequence. Assuming a similar combination of read requests and write requests as previously described, memory controller circuit 110 increases the number of read requests in a read sequence to 48 and decreases the number of write requests in a write sequence to 16. Due to the higher value of memory access efficiency 431c, memory controller circuit 110 has a margin to perform some of the read requests that have a limited chance of being performed simultaneously. By tracking current memory access efficiency and comparing to a specified memory access efficiency, the memory controller circuitry can modify the number of memory requests in the read sequence and the write sequence to obtain the specified efficiency.

Note that the depiction in fig. 4 is merely an example. In other embodiments, different numbers of memory requests may be included in the read sequence and the write sequence. Although only read requests and write requests are shown, in other embodiments, other types of memory requests, such as partial read requests, may be included.

Turning now to FIG. 5, an example of scheduling read-modify-write memory requests is shown. The scheduled request buffer 530 may correspond to the scheduled request buffer 130 of FIG. 1, or to the instruction queue 230 of FIG. 2. The scheduled request buffer 530 is shown as having three entries currently filled with three corresponding memory requests 531-533. Memory request 531 is a read request (R) for memory page 1(p 1). Memory request 533 is a write request (W) for memory page 4(p 4). Further, memory request 532 is a partial read (i.e., read-modify-write) Request (RMW) for page 3(p 3). Referring collectively to FIG. 1 and scheduled request buffer 530, three memory requests 531 and 533 are executed according to the timeline of diagram 500.

As shown, diagram 500 depicts a timeline for executing memory commands corresponding to three memory requests 531-533. Clock signal 515 corresponds to clock signal 115 and provides a timing reference to memory controller circuitry 110. Execution signals 517 indicate activity in a command interface between memory controller circuitry 110 and memory circuitry 120. The high portion of the signal indicates when the memory command is actively being executed and the low portion of the signal indicates when the command interface is idle. Similar to the graph 300 in FIG. 3, several letters are used with the execute signal 317 to indicate the type of memory command being executed. "a" indicates an activate command for preparing a corresponding memory page for one or more subsequent read or write commands. "r" indicates a read command for reading one or more bytes of information from an activated memory page. Similarly, "w" indicates a write command for writing one or more bytes of information to an activated page.

As shown, read request 531 is the last read request in a read sequence, and write request 533 is the first write request in a subsequent write sequence. The memory controller circuitry 110 schedules a partial write request 532 to be performed between the end of the read sequence and the beginning of the write sequence. A partial write request is a type of read-modify-write request that includes reading information from a specified page, modifying some or all of the data from the specified page (if necessary), and then writing the modified data back to the specified page. Since both read and write commands are executed to achieve this type of memory request, a read-to-write transition is performed between the read and write commands. As described below, scheduling read-modify-write requests between a read sequence and a write sequence may allow the memory circuit 120 to avoid performing read-to-write transitions specifically for read-modify-write requests.

Between times t1 and t2, two memory commands, a page activate command, and a read command are executed to fulfill read request 531. Between times t2 and t3, the page activate command and the read command are executed to implement the read portion of memory request 532, resulting in designated page 3 being read by memory controller circuit 110. After reading the data from page 3, memory controller circuit 110 initiates a read-to-write transition for memory circuit 120 from time t3 to time t 4. During the transition time, memory controller circuitry 110 may make any necessary changes to the data from page 3, as specified in memory request 532. After memory circuit 120 is in the write state, the write portion of memory request 532 is implemented between times t4 and t 5. Since memory circuit 120 is now in the write state, write request 533 may begin at time t5 without an additional state transition.

Note that if the read-modify-write request 532 is scheduled during a read sequence, a write-to-read transition will be required after the request 532 is fulfilled, returning the memory circuit 120 to a read state to complete the read sequence. Likewise, if a read-modify-write request 532 is scheduled during a write sequence, a write-to-read transition will be required before request 532 begins, placing memory circuit 120 in a read state for the first read portion of the request.

It is also noted that fig. 5 is an example used to demonstrate the disclosed concepts. The timeline in chart 500 is simplified for clarity. In other embodiments, any suitable number of clock cycles may occur during and between the activities shown.

Circuits and diagrams have been presented above relating to the scheduling and execution of memory requests. Two methods for operating such circuits are now presented.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a flow diagram of an embodiment of a method for managing memory requests in a memory controller is shown. Method 600 may be applied to a memory controller circuit, such as memory controller circuit 110 in FIG. 1 or memory controller circuit 210 in FIG. 2. Referring collectively to the flow diagrams of fig. 1 and 6, the method may begin in block 601.

A memory controller receives a memory request to access a memory circuit (block 602). A memory controller (e.g., memory controller circuitry 110) receives memory requests from one or more processing circuits within a computing system that includes memory controller circuitry 110 and memory circuitry 120. Processing circuitry may issue memory requests to retrieve information from memory circuitry 120, such as instructions or operands of program code of an application or other software process currently executing in processing circuitry in a computing system. In other cases, the processing circuit may issue a memory request to store information into the memory circuit 120 for later use. As shown in FIG. 1, memory controller 110 includes a write request queue and a scheduled request buffer.

The memory controller processes the memory request according to whether the memory request is a read request or a write request (block 604). Memory controller circuitry 110 determines whether the memory request comprises a read request or a write request. In some implementations, additional types of memory requests may be received, such as read-modify-write commands. Memory accesses may take several cycles of a clock signal (e.g., clock signal 115), and thus, memory controller circuitry 110 may be configured to schedule received memory requests in such a manner as to fulfill memory requests at an efficient rate. Since read requests may include requests for instructions or operands of an application, the speed at which such read requests are implemented may have a direct impact on computing system performance as perceived by a user of the computing system. Thus, scheduling read requests may be prioritized over scheduling write requests. The received read request may be scheduled as part of a read sequence within a set of other read requests within scheduled request buffer 130. Write requests may have a lower priority than read requests because the write requests may not be in the critical path of code execution. Thus, memory controller circuitry 110 may store received write requests in write request queue 140.

The memory controller determines an efficiency value representing a current efficiency of the memory controller executing the memory request (block 606). After executing the plurality of memory requests, memory controller circuitry 110 determines a value for a current memory access efficiency associated with execution of the memory commands included in the most recent read sequence and write sequence. The efficiency rate may be determined based on a ratio of active clock cycles to a total clock cycle of the bus clock 282 (during a completed read sequence and write sequence, as shown in FIG. 2). An active clock cycle refers to a cycle of bus clock 282 used to process memory requests. The total number of cycles refers to the number of cycles of the bus clock 282 that occur from the beginning of the execution of the first request of the read sequence to the completion of the last request of the write sequence. In other embodiments, the efficiency rate may be based on the number of memory requests in the read sequence and the write sequence divided by the total number of cycles.

The memory controller schedules memory requests based on the efficiency value and based on a number of write requests stored in the write request queue (block 608). The memory controller circuitry 110 compares the determined value of the current memory access efficiency with the specified memory access efficiency value. The specified value may be set during design of the memory controller circuit 110 or may be sent to the memory controller circuit 110 by an operating system or other software running on the computing system. Memory controller circuitry 110 schedules memory requests within the appropriate upcoming read sequence or write sequence. For upcoming read and write sequences, memory controller circuitry 110 may also adjust the number of read requests and/or the number of write requests to be included in subsequent read and write sequences. For example, if the number of write requests in the write request queue 140 is less than the threshold 141, the received write requests are stored in the write request queue 140 instead of being scheduled for processing. Additionally, if the number of requests in the write request queue 140 reaches a threshold 141, one or more write requests currently stored in the write request queue 140 may be scheduled for execution in an upcoming write sequence.

The memory circuit executes the scheduled read and write requests (block 610). To perform the scheduled memory requests, memory controller circuitry 110 sends one or more memory commands corresponding to each request to memory circuitry 120. The memory circuit 120 executes memory commands corresponding to the scheduled read requests and write requests. The method ends in block 614.

It is noted that the method illustrated in FIG. 6is an example for demonstrating the disclosed concept. In other embodiments, the operations may be performed in a different order. Additional operations may also be included, such as comparing the current queued number of write requests to a threshold number.

Turning now to fig. 7, a flow diagram is shown illustrating an embodiment of a method for determining and utilizing an efficiency rate by a memory controller. Similar to method 600 described above, method 700 may be applied to a memory controller circuit, such as memory controller circuit 110 in FIG. 1 or memory controller circuit 210 in FIG. 2. The operations disclosed by method 700 may be performed in conjunction with or as part of method 600. Referring collectively to the flow diagrams of fig. 1 and 7, the method may begin in block 701.

The memory controller completes the read sequence by executing a scheduled number of consecutive read requests (block 702). As described above, memory controller circuitry 110 creates a set of received read requests to form a read sequence. The requests of the read sequence are performed in a particular order, while the write request is not performed until the last read request of the read sequence has completed. The particular order may include performing some read requests serially, while some read requests may be performed simultaneously, such as performing two read requests addressing different memory banks or different memory devices in parallel.

The memory controller completes the write sequence by executing the scheduled number of consecutive write requests (block 704). Similar to block 702, memory controller circuitry 110 creates a set of write requests to form a write sequence using the write requests that have been queued to write request queue 140, as described above. As with the read sequence of requests, the write sequence of requests may be performed in a particular order, with no read request being performed until the last write request of the write sequence is completed. The particular order of write requests may also include some write requests being performed serially, while some write requests may be performed simultaneously, where appropriate.

In response to completing the read sequence and the write sequence, the memory controller determines an efficiency value based on an amount of time the memory controller is performing memory requests during the read sequence and the write sequence (block 706). After performing memory requests for a read sequence and a subsequent write sequence, the memory controller circuit 110 determines a current memory access efficiency value. For example, the efficiency value may be based on a percentage of cycles of the clock signal 115 that occur during execution of memory commands associated with memory requests in the read sequence and the write sequence among a total number of cycles that occur from execution of a first request of the read sequence to completion of a last request of the write sequence.

The memory controller adjusts the number of memory requests to be performed in subsequent read and write sequences based on the determined value (block 708). The memory controller circuitry 110 compares the determined current memory access efficiency value to the specified memory access efficiency value. Based on the comparison, memory controller circuitry 110 may adjust the number of read requests and/or write requests scheduled in subsequent read and write sequences. In some cases, the number of read requests in a read sequence or the number of write requests in a write sequence (but not both) may be zero. The method ends in block 710.

Note that method 700 is one example that involves managing memory requests. In other embodiments, the operations may be performed in a different order. Some embodiments may include additional operations, such as including read-to-write transitions between read sequences and write sequences.

A block diagram of an embodiment of a computer system, such as a system on a chip (SoC), is shown in fig. 8. Computer system 800 may represent a system that includes a memory controller circuit and a memory circuit and that utilizes the concepts disclosed above. In various embodiments, computer system 800 may be a system implemented on one or more circuit boards including multiple integrated circuits, or may be a SoC integrated onto a single computer chip, or may be implemented as a combination thereof. Computer system 800 includes several processing cores (including core 801), a graphics processor 802, and system peripherals 803, all coupled to a memory cache controller 805. The memory cache controller 805 is coupled to a cache memory 806 and a memory controller circuit 808. The memory controller circuitry 808 is coupled to the memories 810a-810 c. Memory controller 808 and memories 810a-810c collectively form memory system 820, which in some embodiments corresponds to memory system 100 in FIG. 1.

In the illustrated embodiment, core 801 represents a general purpose processing core that performs computing operations. Although a single processing core (i.e., core 801) is shown, in some embodiments, core 801 may correspond to a core complex that includes any suitable number of processing cores. In various embodiments, core 801 may implement any suitable Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), such as ARM^TM、Or x86ISA or a combination thereof. The core 801 may execute instructions by issuing memory transactions to obtain the instructions and data to be utilized and utilize data stored in memory external to the computer system 800, such as memory 810a-810 c. Data and instructions fetched from the memories 810a-810c may be cached in the cache memory 806. In some embodiments, the core 801 may include one or more cache memories in addition to the cache memory 806.

In the illustrated embodiment, the graphics processor 802 includes circuitry for processing images or video to be sent to a display screen (not shown). In some implementations, images and/or video to be processed by the graphics processor 802 may be stored in the memories 810a-810 c. Memories 810a-810c may also store graphics processing instructions used by graphics processor 802 to generate images. Graphics processor 802 may correspond to a processing core capable of issuing memory transactions to retrieve graphics data and instructions. Data retrieved from the memories 810a-810c may be cached in the cache memory 806.

In the identified embodiment, system peripherals 803 include one or more circuit blocks for performing any number of suitable tasks. For example, in various embodiments, system peripherals 803 may include any one or more of a communications peripheral (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), ethernet), a cryptographic engine, an audio processor, a direct memory access module, or any other peripheral that may generate memory transactions to retrieve data or commands from memories 810a-810 c. The system peripherals 803 may include one or more processing cores within various functional circuits that are capable of issuing memory transactions to the memory cache controller 805.

In the illustrated embodiment, the memory cache controller 805 includes circuitry for managing memory transactions issued by the cores 801, graphics processor 802, and system peripherals 803. In the illustrated embodiment, the memory cache controller 805 decodes the memory transaction, translates the address, and determines whether the valid content corresponding to the addressed location is currently in the cache 806 or whether the data is to be retrieved from the memories 810a-810c or elsewhere. If the valid content is not currently cached in the cache memory 806, the memory cache controller 805 may send a transaction to the memory controller circuitry 808 to retrieve the requested data. In some embodiments, computer system 800 may include more than one cache memory 806, and thus may include a respective memory cache controller 805 for each cache memory 806.

In some embodiments, the memory controller circuitry 808 may correspond to the memory cache controller 110 in fig. 1. The memory controller circuitry 808 may include one or more memory controller circuitry to implement memory transactions from each of the memories 810 a-c. For example, one memory controller circuit may be included for each of memories 810a-810 c. In the illustrated embodiment, the memory controller circuitry 808 includes circuitry for reading data from and writing data to each of the memories 810a-810 c. If valid content corresponding to the transaction address is not currently stored in the cache memory 806, the memory controller circuitry 808 receives the memory transaction from the memory cache controller 805.

Memories 810a-810c are storage devices that together form at least a portion of a memory hierarchy that stores data and instructions for computer system 800. More specifically, the memories 810a-810c may correspond to volatile memories having access times that are less than the access times of non-volatile memory devices. Thus, memories 810a-810c may be used to store instructions and data corresponding to the operating system and one or more application programs read from the non-volatile memory after system startup of computer system 800. Memories 810a-810c may represent memory devices in the Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) family of memory devices or in the Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) family of memory devices, or a combination thereof in some implementations.

It is further noted that the block diagram of computer system 800 depicted in FIG. 8 has been simplified in order to improve clarity and to facilitate demonstration of the disclosed concepts. In other embodiments, different and/or additional circuit blocks and different configurations of these circuit blocks are possible and contemplated.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing circuit design information, according to some embodiments. The embodiment of fig. 9 may be used in a process for designing and manufacturing an integrated circuit, such as, for example, an IC including computer system 800 of fig. 8. In the illustrated embodiment, the semiconductor manufacturing system 920 is configured to process design information 915 stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium 910 and manufacture an integrated circuit 930 based on the design information 915.

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 910 may include any of a variety of suitable types of memory devices or storage devices. Non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 910 may be an installation medium, such as a CD-ROM, floppy disk, or tape device; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, e.g., a hard disk drive or optical storage; registers, or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 910 may also include other types of non-transitory memories or combinations thereof. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 910 may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations, such as different computer systems connected by a network.

Design information 915 may be specified using any of a variety of suitable computer languages, including hardware description languages such as, but not limited to: VHDL, Verilog, SystemC, SystemVerilog, RHDL, M, MyHDL, and the like. Design information 915 may be capable of being used by semiconductor manufacturing system 920 to fabricate at least a portion of integrated circuit 930. The format of design information 915 may be recognized by at least one semiconductor manufacturing system, such as semiconductor manufacturing system 920. In some embodiments, design information 915 may include a netlist specifying the elements of the cell library and their connectivity. One or more cell libraries used during logic synthesis of the circuits included in integrated circuit 930 may also be included in design information 915. Such cell libraries may include information indicative of device or transistor level netlists, mask design data, characterization data, etc. for the cells included in the cell library.

In various embodiments, integrated circuit 930 may include one or more custom macrocells, such as memory, analog or mixed-signal circuits, and the like. In this case, the design information 915 may include information related to the included macro cells. Such information may include, but is not limited to, a circuit diagram capture database, mask design data, behavioral models, and device or transistor level netlists. As used herein, mask design data may be formatted according to a graphical data system (transient) or any other suitable format.

Semiconductor manufacturing system 920 may include any of a variety of suitable components configured to fabricate integrated circuits. This may include, for example, elements used to deposit semiconductor material (e.g., on a wafer that may include a mask), remove material, change the shape of the deposited material, modify the material (e.g., by doping the material or using ultraviolet processing to modify the dielectric constant), and so forth. The semiconductor manufacturing system 920 may also be configured to perform various tests of the manufactured circuits for proper operation.

In various embodiments, integrated circuit 930 is configured to operate according to a circuit design specified by design information 915, which may include performing any of the functionality described herein. For example, integrated circuit 930 may include any of the various elements shown or described herein. Additionally, integrated circuit 930 may be configured to perform various functions described herein in connection with other components. Further, the functionality described herein may be performed by a plurality of connected integrated circuits.

As used herein, a phrase in the form of "design information specifying the design of a circuit configured as …" does not imply that the circuit involved must be manufactured in order to satisfy the element. Rather, the phrase indicates that the design information describes a circuit that, when manufactured, is to be configured to perform the indicated action or is to include the specified component.

Although specific embodiments have been described above, these embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, even if only a single embodiment is described with respect to a particular feature. The characteristic examples provided in the present disclosure are intended to be illustrative, not limiting, unless differently expressed. The foregoing description is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

The scope of the present disclosure includes any feature or combination of features disclosed herein (either explicitly or implicitly) or any generalization thereof, whether or not it mitigates any or all of the problems addressed herein. Accordingly, new claims may be formulated to any such combination of features during the prosecution of the present patent application (or of a patent application claiming priority thereto). In particular, with reference to the appended claims, features from dependent claims may be combined with those of the independent claims and features from respective independent claims may be combined in any appropriate manner and not merely in the specific combinations enumerated in the appended claims.