Performance attributes for memory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10866738-B2
Application number	US-201916247318-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 14, 2019
Priority date	Jan 31, 2017
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

An example device in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure includes a plurality of memory segments corresponding to at least one memory channel of a computing system that is to receive a memory module. A performance attribute of an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) table is set to indicate performance of at least one of the plurality of memory segments, and is usable for memory allocation by an operating system memory manager.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
a plurality of memory segments corresponding to at least one memory channel that is to receive a memory module; and
a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the computing system that, when executed, cause the computing system to:
establish a performance attribute of an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Hardware Specification table, wherein the performance attribute is set to indicate a memory interleaving scheme of at least one of the plurality of memory segments, and is usable for memory allocation by an operating system memory manager;
load the ACPI table into operating system memory;
identify, by the operating system memory manager, a characteristic of a process for which memory is to be allocated;
allocate memory by the operating system memory manager according to the performance attribute and according to the characteristic, wherein the performance attribute indicates at least one of i) bandwidth performance, and ii) power efficiency;
identify a notification issued in response to a change in the performance attribute;
in response to the identified notification, reload the ACPI table with the changed performance attribute into the operating system memory; and
reallocate the memory by the operating system memory manager according to the changed performance attribute in the reloaded ACPI table and according to the characteristic.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the bandwidth performance is associated with a physical configuration of at least one memory module that is to populate the at least one memory channel.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing system to establish an additional performance attribute of the ACPI Hardware Specification table, wherein the additional performance attribute is associated with a memory subsystem design topology corresponding to a mechanical form factor of the computing system.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium is encoded as firmware instructions of the computing system, wherein the firmware instructions direct the computing system to copy the performance attribute from the ACPI table to a memory usable by an operating system of the computing system.

5. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing system to establish an additional performance attribute of the ACPI Hardware Specification table, wherein the additional performance attribute is provided at a granularity of memory address segmentation within a given memory module that is configurable into different operational modes.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing system to send a notification to the operating system memory manager to indicate a change in the performance attribute.

7. A method, comprising:
establishing a performance attribute of an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Hardware Specification table, wherein the performance attribute corresponds to at least one of a plurality of memory segments corresponding to at least one memory channel of a computing system that is to receive a memory module;
loading the ACPI table into operating system memory;
identifying, by an operating system memory manager, a characteristic of a process for which memory is to be allocated;
allocating memory by the operating system memory manager according to the performance attribute and according to the characteristic, wherein the performance attribute indicates at least one of i) bandwidth performance, and ii) power efficiency;
identifying a notification issued in response to a change in the performance attribute;
in response to the identified notification, reloading the ACPI table with the changed performance attribute into the operating system memory; and
reallocating the memory by the operating system memory manager according to the changed performance attribute in the reloaded ACPI table and according to the characteristic.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: reallocating the memory according to a user preference that indicates an extent to which power savings is to be prioritized relative to performance.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
identifying low workload demand status of the computing system; and
consolidating memory contents into at least one memory segment whose corresponding at least one performance attribute that indicates high power efficiency.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the characteristic indicates a data set size for the process.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the characteristic indicates a frequency at which the process accesses memory.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a computing system that, when executed, cause the computing system to:
establish a performance attribute of an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Hardware Specification table, wherein the performance attribute corresponds to at least one of a plurality of memory segments of at least one memory channel of a computing system that is to receive a memory module, and wherein the performance attribute is set to indicate a partition of a memory segmentation behind a memory controller;
load the ACPI table into operating system memory, wherein an operating system memory manager performs memory allocation according to the performance attribute in the loaded ACPI table;
identify a notification issued in response to a change in the performance attribute; and
in response to the identified notification, reload the ACPI table with the changed performance attribute into the operating system memory, wherein the operating system memory manager re-performs memory allocation according to the changed performance attribute in the reloaded ACPI table.

13. The storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the notification is to indicate a change in memory configuration of the computing system.

14. The storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the computing system is to generate the notification in response to a change in the ACPI table.

15. The storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the change in the ACPI table is based on physical change in the at least one memory module installed in the computing system.

16. The storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the change in the ACPI table is based on a segmentation change in the at least one memory module installed in the computing system.

17. The storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the segmentation change is contained within a given one of the at least one memory module.

18. The storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the change in the ACPI table is based on a change in memory populating the computing system.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Nguyen Vincent
• Fevrier Thierry
• Engler David

Classifications

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F9/5016 Primary

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title

• G06F3/061 Primary

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G06F3/0631

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title