Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for clearing memory, or portions thereof in a fast and efficient manner begins by representing a group of memory locations by a representative value. When a particular group of memory locations is accessed, a determination is made as to whether the corresponding representative value is in first state. If so, a clear value is stored in each corresponding memory location of a cache memory. Note that the corresponding memory locations of the cache memory correspond to the group of memory locations. The processing continues by setting a dirty bit for the corresponding memory locations of cache when the representative value is in the first state. If, however, the representative value is in a second state, data is read from the group of memory locations into the corresponding memory locations of the cache memory. When a cache write-back command is received, the data, or clear values, stored in memory are written from the cache memory into the main memory.

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First Claim