George F LynchMedfield, MA

8464001, Jun 11, 2013

Dec 9, 2008

12/331305

John H. Edmondson - Arlington MA, US
David B. Glasco - Austin TX, US
Peter B. Holmqvist - Cary NC, US
George R. Lynch - Raleigh NC, US
Patrick R. Marchand - Apex NC, US
James Roberts - Austin TX, US

NVIDIA Corporation - Santa Clara

G06F 12/12
G06F 13/00

711133, 711135, 711143

Systems and methods are disclosed for managing the number of affirmatively associated cache lines related to the different sets of a data cache unit. A tag look-up unit implements two thresholds, which may be configurable thresholds, to manage the number of cache lines related to a given set that store dirty data or are reserved for in-flight read requests. If the number of affirmatively associated cache lines in a given set is equal to a maximum threshold, the tag look-up unit stalls future requests that require an available cache line within that set to be affirmatively associated. To reduce the number of stalled requests, the tag look-up unit transmits a high priority clean notification to a frame buffer logic when the number of affirmatively associated cache lines in a given set approaches the maximum threshold. The frame buffer logic then processes requests associated with that set preemptively.