| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090157967 | Pre-Fetch Data and Pre-Fetch Data Relative - A prefetch data machine instruction having an M field performs a function on a cache line of data specifying an address of an operand. The operation comprises either prefetching a cache line of data from memory to a cache or reducing the access ownership of store and fetch or fetch only of the cache line in the cache or a combination thereof. The address of the operand is either based on a register value or the program counter value pointing to the prefetch data machine instruction. | 06-18-2009 |
| 20090182942 | Extract Cache Attribute Facility and Instruction Therefore - A facility and cache machine instruction of a computer architecture for specifying a target cache cache-level and a target cache attribute of interest for obtaining a cache attribute of one or more target caches. The requested cache attribute of the target cache(s) is saved in a register. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182964 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH FORMAT CONTROL - What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables are obtained. An index portion of the virtual address is used to reference an entry in the translation table. If the format control field is enabled, a frame address of a large block of data in main storage is obtained from the translation table entry. The large block of data is a block of at least 1M byte in size. The frame address is then combined with an offset portion of the virtual address to form the translated address of a desired block of data within the large block of data in main storage. The desired large block of data addressed by the translated address is then accessed. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182966 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH FRAME MANAGEMENT - What is disclosed is a frame management function defined for a machine architecture of a computer system. In one embodiment, a frame management instruction is obtained which identifies a first and second general register. The first general register contains a frame management field having a key field with access-protection bits and a block-size indication. If the block-size indication indicates a large block then an operand address of a large block of data is obtained from the second general register. The large block of data has a plurality of small blocks each of which is associated with a corresponding storage key having a plurality of storage key access-protection bits. If the block size indication indicates a large block, the storage key access-protection bits of each corresponding storage key of each small block within the large block is set with the access-protection bits of the key field. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182971 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH FETCH PROTECTION - What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated is first obtained and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables is obtained. Based on the obtained initial origin, a segment table entry is obtained. The segment table entry is configured to contain a format control and access validity fields. If the format control and access validity fields are enabled, the segment table entry further contains an access control field, a fetch protection field, and a segment-frame absolute address. Store operations are permitted only if the access control field matches a program access key provided by any one of a Program Status Word or an operand of a program instruction being executed. Fetch operations are permitted if the program access key associated with the virtual address is equal to the segment access control field. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182972 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH FORMAT CONTROL - What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables are obtained. An index portion of the virtual address is used to reference an entry in the translation table. If a format control field contained in the translation table entry is enabled, the table entry contains a frame address of a large block of data of at least 1M byte in size. The frame address is then combined with an offset portion of the virtual address to form the translated address of a small 4K byte block of data in main storage or memory. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182983 | Compare and Branch Facility and Instruction Therefore - An atomic compare and branch instruction is executed that combines the function of a compare instruction having an option field with a conditional branch or jump instruction such that condition codes are preserved rather than setting condition codes to a value representative of the compare results. One comparand is obtained from any one of a memory location or an immediate field and the other comparand is obtained from a register field. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182984 | Execute Relative Long Facility and Instructions Therefore - A method, system and program product for an execute relative instruction, which when executed fetches and executes a target instruction at a relative address and then returns processing to the next instruction following the execute relative instruction. The relative address is formed by adding the value of the program counter to a sign extended immediate field. The fetched target instruction is optionally modified before execution by OR'ing bits into predetermined bits of the target instruction. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182985 | Move Facility and Instructions Therefore - A move instruction, having a signed immediate field, copies a sign extended signed immediate field value to an operand location in memory. The size of the operand is determined by the opcode of the instruction. Preferably, the address of the operand is determined by adding a displacement field of the instruction to a value associated with a register field of the instruction. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182988 | Compare Relative Long Facility and Instructions Therefore - A method, system and program product for comparing two operands wherein one operand is obtained from memory wherein the address of the memory operand is based an offset of the program counter rather than an explicitly defined address location. The offset is defined by an immediate field of the instruction which is sign extended and is aligned as a halfword address when added to the value of the program counter. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090182992 | Load Relative and Store Relative Facility and Instructions Therefore - A method, system and program product for loading or storing memory data wherein the address of the memory operand is based an offset of the program counter rather than an explicitly defined address location. The offset is defined by an immediate field of the instruction which is sign extended and is aligned as a halfword address when added to the value of the program counter. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090187724 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH FRAME MANAGEMENT - What is disclosed is a set key and clear frame management function defined for a machine architecture of a computer system. In one embodiment, a machine instruction is obtained which identifies a first and second general register. Obtained from the first general register is a frame size field indicating whether a storage frame is one of a small block or a large block of data. Obtained from the second general register is an operand address of a storage frame upon which the instruction is to be performed. If the storage frame is a small block, the instruction is performed only on the small block. If the indicated storage frame is a large block of data, an operand address of an initial first block of data within the large block of data is obtained from the second general register. The frame management instruction is performed on all blocks starting from the initial first block. | 07-23-2009 |
| 20090187728 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH CHANGE RECORDING OVERRIDE - What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables are obtained. A segment table entry obtained from a segment table contains a format control field. If the format control field is enabled, a segment-frame absolute address of a large block of data in main storage is obtained from the segment table entry. Each 4K byte block of data within the large block has an associated storage key. Store operations associated with the virtual address are performed to the desired block of data. If the change recording override field is disabled, the change bit of the storage key associated with the desired 4K byte block is set to 1. An indication is then provided that the desired 4K byte block has been modified. | 07-23-2009 |
| 20090187732 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH DAT PROTECTION - What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of any one of a region first table, a region second table, a region third table, or a segment table are obtained. Based on the obtained initial origin address, a segment table entry is obtained which contains a format control and DAT protection fields. If the format control field is enabled, obtaining from the translation table entry a segment-frame absolute address of a large block of data in main storage. The segment-frame absolute address is combined with a page index portion and a byte index portion of the virtual address to form a translated address of the desired block of data. If the DAT protection field is not enabled, fetches and stores are permitted to the desired block of data addressed by the translated virtual address. | 07-23-2009 |
| 20090193214 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH FRAME MANAGEMENT - What is disclosed is a frame management function defined for a machine architecture of a computer system. In one embodiment, a machine instruction is obtained containing an opcode for a frame management instruction identifying a first and second general register. Clear frame information is obtained from the first general register having a frame size field indicating whether a storage frame is a small or large block of data. The second general register contains an operand address of a storage frame. If the storage frame is a small block, all bytes of the small block of data are set to zero. If the storage frame is a large block of data, an operand address of an initial first block of data within the large block is obtained from the second general register. All data of all blocks within the large block are cleared starting from the initial first block. | 07-30-2009 |
| 20090193237 | PARSING-ENHANCEMENT FACILITY - An instruction for parsing a buffer to be utilized within a data processing system including: an operation code field, the operation code field identifies the instruction; a control field, the control field controls operation of the instruction; and one or more general register, wherein a first general register stores an argument address, a second general register stores a function code, a third general register stores length of an argument-character buffer, and the fourth of which contains the address of the function-code data structure. | 07-30-2009 |
| 20090216963 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING A SHARED MEMORY TRANSLATION FACILITY - A system, method and computer program product for providing a shared memory translation facility. The method includes receiving a request for access to a memory address from a requestor at a configuration, the receiving at a shared memory translation mechanism. It is determined if the memory address refers to a shared memory object (SMO), the SMO accessible by a plurality of configurations. In response to determining that the memory address refers to the SMO, it is determined if the configuration has access to the SMO. In response to determining that the configuration has access to the SMO, the requestor is provided a system absolute address for the SMO and access to the SMO. In this manner direct interchange of data between the plurality of configurations is allowed. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090216984 | OPTIMIZATIONS OF A PERFORM FRAME MANAGEMENT FUNCTION ISSUED BY PAGEABLE GUESTS - Optimizations are provided for frame management operations, including a clear operation and/or a set storage key operation, requested by pageable guests. The operations are performed, absent host intervention, on frames not resident in host memory. The operations may be specified in an instruction issued by the pageable guests. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090216992 | DYNAMIC ADDRESS TRANSLATION WITH TRANSLATION EXCEPTION QUALIFIER - What is provided is an enhanced dynamic address translation facility. In one embodiment, a virtual address to be translated and an initial origin address of a translation table of the hierarchy of translation tables are obtained. Dynamic address translation of the virtual address proceeds. In response to a translation interruption having occurred during dynamic address translation, bits are stored in a translation exception qualifier (TXQ) field to indicate that the exception was either a host DAT exception having occurred while running a host program or a host DAT exception having occurred while running a guest program. The TXQ is further capable of indicating that the exception was associated with a host virtual address derived from a guest page frame real address or a guest segment frame absolute address. The TXQ is further capable of indicating that a larger or smaller host frame size is preferred to back a guest frame. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090216995 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING QUIESCE FILTERING FOR SHARED MEMORY - A system, method and computer program product for providing quiesce filtering for shared memory. The method includes receiving a shared-memory quiesce request at a processor. The request includes a donor zone. The processor includes translation look aside buffer one (TLB | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090217098 | MANAGING USE OF STORAGE BY MULTIPLE PAGEABLE GUESTS OF A COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - Management of storage used by pageable guests of a computing environment is facilitated. An enhanced suppression-on-protection facility is provided that enables the determination of which level of protection (host or guest) caused a fault condition, in response to an attempted storage access. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090259875 | Store Clock and Store Clock Fast Instruction Execution - Two forms of TOD Clock instructions are provided, Store Clock and Store Clock Fast. Execution of the Store Clock Fast instruction may produce a time of day (TOD) result that is exactly the same as a previous TOD result, however execution of Store Clock Fast instructions while the clock is running always produce unique TOD results. | 10-15-2009 |
| 20090327658 | COMPARE, SWAP AND STORE FACILITY WITH NO EXTERNAL SERIALIZATION - A compare, swap and store facility is provided that does not require external serialization. A compare and swap operation is performed using an interlocked update operation. If the comparison indicates equality, a store operation is performed. The compare, swap and store operations are performed as a single unit of operation. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20100299506 | ROTATE THEN OPERATE ON SELECTED BITS FACILITY AND INSTRUCTIONS THEREFORE - A rotate then operate instruction having a T bit is fetched and executed wherein a first operand in a first register is rotated by an amount and a Boolean operation is performed on a selected portion of the rotated first operand and a second operand in of a second register. If the T bit is ‘0’ the selected portion of the result of the Boolean operation is inserted into corresponding bits of a second operand of a second register. If the T bit is ‘1’, in addition to the inserted bits, the bits other than the selected portion of the rotated first operand are saved in the second register. | 11-25-2010 |
| 20100325385 | DETECTION OF ZERO ADDRESS EVENTS IN ADDRESS FORMATION - One or more registers used to form an address usable in accessing storage are examined to determine if a zero address event has occurred in forming the address. In response to an indication that a zero address event has occurred in address formation, an alert is provided to the program using the address to access storage. | 12-23-2010 |
| 20100325401 | Method of Translating N to N Instructions Employing an Enhanced Extended Translation Facility - A method, article, and system for providing an effective implementation of assembler language translate-n-to-n instructions implemented on 21, 31, and 64-bit architectures, while maintaining backward compatibility with existing systems. The enhanced Extended-Translation Facility 2 (ETF2) instruction set introduces a new operand in an unused field (M | 12-23-2010 |
| 20110131382 | Extract Cache Attribute Facility and Instruction Therefore - A facility and cache machine instruction of a computer architecture for specifying a target cache cache-level and a target cache attribute of interest for obtaining a cache attribute of one or more target caches. The requested cache attribute of the target cache(s) is saved in a register. | 06-02-2011 |
| 20110145550 | NON-QUIESCING KEY SETTING FACILITY - A non-quiescing key setting facility is provided that enables manipulation of storage keys to be performed without quiescing operations of other processors of a multiprocessor system. With this facility, a storage key, which is accessible by a plurality of processors of the multiprocessor system, is updated absent a quiesce of operations of the plurality of processors. Since the storage key is updated absent quiescing of other operations, the storage key may be observed by a processor as having one value at the start of an operation performed by the processor and a second value at the end of the operation. A mechanism is provided to enable the operation to continue, avoiding a fatal exception. | 06-16-2011 |