Techniques for dynamic physical memory partitioning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9274839-B2
Application number	US-201213628314-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2012
Priority date	Sep 27, 2012
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

Various embodiments are presented herein that reallocate partitions of a shared physical memory between processing units. An apparatus and a computer-implemented method may determine an amount of memory space in the physical memory allocated to a first processing unit during system initialization. The determined amount of the memory space may be consolidated. The consolidated memory space may be allocated to the second processing unit during runtime. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
determining an amount of a memory space in a physical memory allocated to a central processing unit (CPU) during system initialization, the physical memory electrically accessible to the CPU;
determining whether a system entity is currently being executed by the CPU within the determined amount of memory space;
consolidating the determined amount of the memory space in response to a determination that the system entity is not currently being executed within the determined amount of memory space; and
reallocating the consolidated memory space to an integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) of the CPU during runtime, the physical memory electrically accessible to the integrated GPU.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving at the CPU a request to allocate memory space to the integrated GPU.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining whether the physical memory includes unallocated memory space.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining whether the memory space allocated to the CPU includes available memory space.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining whether the memory space allocated to the CPU exceeds a threshold.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
remapping physical pages from the determined amount of the memory space.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
copying memory resources into a non-volatile long term storage to make available memory space within the CPU.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
copying memory resources within the determined amount of the memory space into available memory space allocated to the CPU.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving a request to reallocate the physical memory to the integrated GPU during runtime based on a user created profile for allocation of the physical memory.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving a request to reallocate the physical memory to the integrated GPU during runtime based on an application specific profile.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving a request to reallocate the physical memory to the integrated GPU during runtime based on dynamic determinations by a system entity.

12. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of processing units including a central processing unit (CPU) and an integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) of the CPU; and
a memory partitioning manager operative on at least one processing unit of the plurality of processing units to repartition a physical memory comprising a first memory space allocated to the CPU and a second memory space allocated to the integrated GPU, the physical memory electrically accessible to the CPU and the integrated GPU, the memory partitioning manager operative to:
determine an amount of the first memory space to be reallocated from the CPU to the integrated GPU;
determine whether a system entity is currently being executed by the CPU within the determined amount of the first memory space; and
reallocate the determined amount of the first memory space from the CPU to the integrated GPU during runtime in response to a determination that the system entity is not currently being executed within the determined amount of the first memory space.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager operative to consolidate the determined amount of first memory space.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager operative to receive a request to allocate memory space to the integrated GPU.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager operative to determine whether the first memory space includes available memory space.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager runs on a virtual machine monitor.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager runs on one of: a central processing unit, a graphics driver, a logic circuit, or an operating system.

18. The apparatus of claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager operative to determine whether the first memory space allocated to the CPU exceeds a threshold.

19. The apparatus claim 12 , the memory partitioning manager operative to remap physical pages from the determined amount of the memory space.

20. The apparatus of claim 12 , comprising:
a digital display operatively coupled to at least one processing unit of the plurality of processing units.

21. At least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a computing device cause the computing device to:
request an amount of a memory space in a physical memory allocated to a central processing unit (CPU) to be reallocated to an integrated graphics (GPU) of the CPU, the physical memory electrically accessible to the CPU and the integrated GPU;
determine whether a system entity is currently being executed by the CPU within the requested amount of memory space;
consolidate the requested amount of the memory space in the physical memory allocated to the CPU during runtime in response to a determination that the system entity is not currently being executed within the requested amount of memory space; and
reallocate the consolidated memory space to the integrated GPU.

22. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 21 , comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on the computing device cause the computing device to determine whether the physical memory includes unallocated memory space.

23. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 21 , comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on the computing device cause the computing device to determine whether the physical memory allocated to the CPU exceeds a threshold.

24. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 21 , comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on the computing device cause the computing device to remap physical pages from the requested amount of the memory space.

25. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 21 , comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on the computing device cause the computing device to copy memory resources into a non-volatile long term memory to make available memory space within the physical memory allocated to the CPU.

26. A system comprising:
a plurality of processing units including a central processing unit (CPU) and an integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) of the CPU;
a digital display operatively coupled to at least one of the plurality of processing units; and
a memory partitioning manager operative on at least one processing unit of the plurality of processing units to reallocate a first memory space in a physical memory space allocated to the CPU and a second memory space in the physical memory space allocated to the integrated GPU, the physical memory electrically accessible to the CPU and the integrated GPU, the memory partitioning manager operative to:
determine an amount of the first memory space to reallocate to

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Schluessler Travis T
• Taylor Robert B

Classifications

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2212/1041

  Resource optimization · CPC title

• G06F9/5016 Primary

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• G06F12/0284 Primary

  Multiple user address space allocation, e.g. using different base addresses (interprocessor communication G06F15/163) · CPC title