Importance

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Abstract

A system and method are provided for efficiently prefetching data in a pointer linked data structure (140). In one embodiment, a data processing system (100) is provided including a processor (110) capable of executing a program, a main-memory (115) and a prefetch engine (175) configured to prefetch data from a plurality of locations in main-memory in response to a prefetch request from the processor. When the data in main-memory (115) has a linked-data-structure having a number nodes (145) each with data (150) stored therein, prefetch engine (175) is configured to traverse the linked-data-structure and prefetch data from the nodes. The prefetch engine (175) is configured to determine from data contained in a prefetched first node (145A) and an offset value a new starting address for a second node (145B) to be prefetched. In one embodiment, the prefetch engine (175) includes a number of sets of prefetch registers (180), one set of prefetch registers for each prefetch request from processor (110) that is yet to be completed. Each set of prefetch registers (180) includes (i) a prefetch address register (190); (ii) an offset register (195); (iii) a termination register (200); (iv) a status register (205); and (v) a returned data register (210).

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First Claim