Cache Memory Having Enhanced Performance and Security Features

US Patent No: US 9,110,816 B2

Issued: August 18, 2015

USPTO Patent PDF | Google Patents

Security Area: Secure Caches and Cache Side-Channel Attacks

Abstract

Methods for accessing, storing and replacing data in a cache memory are provided, wherein a plurality of index bits and a plurality of tag bits at the cache memory are received. The plurality of index bits are processed to determine whether a matching index exists in the cache memory and the plurality of tag bits are processed to determine whether a matching tag exists in the cache memory, and a data line is retrieved from the cache memory if both a matching tag and a matching index exist in the cache memory. A random line in the cache memory can be replaced with a data line from a main memory, or evicted without replacement, based on the combination of index and tag misses, security contexts and protection bits. User-defined and/or vendor-defined replacement procedures can be utilized to replace data lines in the cache memory.

Related Patents

Related patents cover variations of this invention with different claim scopes or extensions.

US 8,549,208 B2 (Issued: October 1, 2013)

US 9,864,703 B2 (Issued: January 9, 2018)