| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20080313431 | Method and System for Altering Processor Execution of a Group of Instructions - An embodiment of the invention is a processor for detecting one or more groups of instructions and initiating a processor action upon detecting one or more groups of instructions. The processor includes an instruction unit for fetching and decoding a group of instructions. An instruction register receives the group of instruction having at least one instruction opcode. A control register includes a control word including a control opcode and an action field defining a processor action. An execution unit includes compare logic for comparing the instruction opcode and the control opcode. The execution unit initiates the processor action upon the compare logic detecting a hit between the instruction opcode and the control opcode. | 12-18-2008 |
| 20090198980 | FACILITATING PROCESSING IN A COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT USING AN EXTENDED DRAIN INSTRUCTION - An extended DRAIN instruction is used to stall processing within a computing environment. The instruction includes an indication of the one or more processing stages at which processing is to be stalled. It also includes a control that allows processing to be stalled for additional cycles, as desired. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20090204794 | METHODS COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS AND SYSTEMS FOR UNIFYING PROGRAM EVENT RECORDING FOR BRANCHES AND STORES IN THE SAME DATAFLOW - The present invention relates to a method for the unification of PER branch and PER store operations within the same dataflow. The method comprises determining a PER range, the PER range comprising a storage area defined by a designated storage starting area and a designated storage ending area, wherein the storage starting area is designated by a value of the contents of a first control register and the storage ending area is designated by a value of the contents of a second control register. The method also comprises retrieving register field content values that are stored at a plurality of registers, wherein the retrieved content values comprises a length field content value, and setting the length field content value to zero for a PER branch instruction, thereby enabling a PER branch instruction to performed similarly to a PER storage instruction. | 08-13-2009 |
| 20090210656 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OVERLAPPING EXECUTION OF INSTRUCTIONS THROUGH NON-UNIFORM EXECUTION PIPELINES IN AN IN-ORDER PROCESSOR - A system and method for overlapping execution (OE) of instructions through non-uniform execution pipelines in an in-order processor are provided. The system includes a first execution unit to perform instruction execution in a first execution pipeline. The system also includes a second execution unit to perform instruction execution in a second execution pipeline, where the second execution pipeline includes a greater number of stages than the first execution pipeline. The system further includes an instruction dispatch unit (IDU), the IDU including OE registers and logic for dispatching an OE-capable instruction to the first execution unit such that the instruction completes execution prior to completing execution of a previously dispatched instruction to the second execution unit. The system additionally includes a latch to hold a result of the execution of the OE-capable instruction until after the second execution unit completes the execution of the previously dispatched instruction. | 08-20-2009 |
| 20090210675 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EARLY INSTRUCTION TEXT BASED OPERAND STORE COMPARE REJECT AVOIDANCE - A method and system for early instruction text based operand store compare avoidance in a processor are provided. The system includes a processor pipeline for processing instruction text in an instruction stream, where the instruction text includes operand address information. The system also includes delay logic to monitor the instruction stream. The delay logic performs a method that includes detecting a load instruction following a store instruction in the instruction stream, comparing the operand address information of the store instruction with the load instruction. The method also includes delaying the load instruction in the processor pipeline in response to detecting a common field value between the operand address information of the store instruction and the load instruction. | 08-20-2009 |
| 20090210775 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INSTRUCTION ADDRESS PARITY COMPARISON - A method and system for instruction address parity comparison are provided. The method includes calculating an instruction address parity value for an instruction, and distributing the instruction address parity value to one or more functional units in processing circuitry. The method also includes receiving the distributed instruction address parity value from the one or more functional units, and calculating a completing instruction address (CIA) parity value associated with completing the instruction. The method further includes generating an error indicator in response to a mismatch between the received instruction address parity value and the CIA parity value. | 08-20-2009 |
| 20090217005 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR SELECTIVELY ACCELERATING EARLY INSTRUCTION PROCESSING - A method for selectively accelerating early instruction processing including receiving an instruction data that is normally processed in an execution stage of a processor pipeline, wherein a configuration of the instruction data allows a processing of the instruction data to be accelerated from the execution stage to an address generation stage that occurs earlier in the processor pipeline than the execution stage, determining whether the instruction data can be dispatched to the address generation stage to be processed without being delayed due to an unavailability of a processing resource needed for the processing of the instruction data in the address generation stage, dispatching the instruction data to be processed in the address generation stage if it can be dispatched without being delayed due to the unavailability of the processing resource, and dispatching the instruction data to be processed in the execution stage if it can not be dispatched without being delayed due to the unavailability of the processing resource, wherein the processing of the instruction data is selectively accelerated using an address generation interlock scheme. A corresponding system and computer program product. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090217009 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR TRANSLATING STORAGE ELEMENTS - A system, method and computer program product for translations in a computer system. The system includes a general purpose register containing a base address of an address translation table. The system also includes a millicode accessible special displacement register configured to receive a plurality of elements to be translated. The system further includes a multiplexer for selecting a particular one of the plurality of elements from the millicode accessible special displacement register and for generating a displacement or offset value. The system further includes an address generator for creating a combined address containing the base address from the general purpose register and the generated displacement or offset value. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090217077 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROCESSOR ERROR CHECKING - A method for processor error checking including receiving an instruction data, generating a pre-processing parity data based on the instruction data, maintaining the pre-processing parity data, processing the instruction data, generating a post-processing parity data based on the processed instruction data, checking for an error related to processing the instruction data by comparing the post-processing parity data to the pre-processing parity data, and transmitting an error signal that indicates the error related to processing the instruction data occurred if the post-processing parity data does not match the pre-processing parity data, wherein checking for the error related to processing the instruction data is performed without using a duplicate processing circuitry. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090217135 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ADDRESS GENERATION CHECKING - A method for address generation checking including receiving a starting memory address for a data, an ending memory address for the data, a length value of the data, and an address wrap indicator value that indicates if the data wraps from an end of a memory block to a start of the memory block, determining whether the ending memory address is equal to a sum of the starting memory address added to a difference of the length value to the address wrap indicator value, and transmitting an error signal that indicates an error occurred in a generation of the starting memory address or the ending memory address if the ending memory address is not equal to the sum. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20090240914 | RECYCLING LONG MULTI-OPERAND INSTRUCTIONS - A pipelined microprocessor configured for long operand instructions is disclosed. The microprocessor includes a memory unit and a load-store unit. The load store unit is coupled to the memory unit and includes a data formatter receiving information from the memory unit and including an operand selector and a shift register portion. The microprocessor also includes an execution unit coupled to the load-store unit and receiving operand information there from. The execution unit includes output latches coupled to a storage location within the execution unit for storing output information from the execution unit. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090240918 | METHOD, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND HARDWARE PRODUCT FOR ELIMINATING OR REDUCING OPERAND LINE CROSSING PENALTY - Eliminating or reducing an operand line crossing penalty by performing an initial fetch for an operand from a data cache of a processor. The initial fetch is performed by allowing or permitting the initial fetch to occur unaligned with reference to a quadword boundary. A plurality of subsequent fetches for a corresponding plurality of operands from the data cache are performed wherein each of the plurality of subsequent fetches is aligned to any of a plurality of quadword boundaries to prevent each of a plurality of individual fetch requests from spanning a plurality of lines in the data cache. A steady stream of data is maintained by placing an operand buffer at an output of the data cache to store and merge data from the initial fetch and the plurality of subsequent fetches, and to return the stored and merged data to the processor. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090240919 | PROCESSOR AND METHOD FOR SYNCHRONOUS LOAD MULTIPLE FETCHING SEQUENCE AND PIPELINE STAGE RESULT TRACKING TO FACILITATE EARLY ADDRESS GENERATION INTERLOCK BYPASS - A pipelined processor including an architecture for address generation interlocking, the processor including: an instruction grouping unit to detect a read-after-write dependency and to resolve instruction interdependency; an instruction dispatch unit (IDU) including address generation interlock (AGI) and operand fetching logic for dispatching an instruction to at least one of a load store unit and an execution unit; wherein the load store unit is configured with access to a data cache and to return fetched data to the execution unit; wherein the execution unit is configured to write data into a general purpose register bank; and wherein the architecture provides support for bypassing of results of a load multiple instruction for address generation while such instruction is executing in the execution unit before the general purpose register bank is written. A method and a computer system are also provided. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090240921 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR SUPPORTING PARTIAL RECYCLE IN A PIPELINED MICROPROCESSOR - A computer processing system is provided. The computer processing system includes a first datastore that stores a subset of information associated with an instruction. A first stage of a processor pipeline writes the subset of information to the first datastore based on an execution of an operation associated with the instruction. A second stage of the pipeline initiates reprocessing of the operation associated with the instruction based on the subset of information stored in the first datastore. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090240922 | METHOD, SYSTEM, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND HARDWARE PRODUCT FOR IMPLEMENTING RESULT FORWARDING BETWEEN DIFFERENTLY SIZED OPERANDS IN A SUPERSCALAR PROCESSOR - Result and operand forwarding is provided between differently sized operands in a superscalar processor by grouping a first set of instructions for operand forwarding, and grouping a second set of instructions for result forwarding, the first set of instructions comprising a first source instruction having a first operand and a first dependent instruction having a second operand, the first dependent instruction depending from the first source instruction; the second set of instructions comprising a second source instruction having a third operand and a second dependent instruction having a fourth operand, the second dependent instruction depending from the second source instruction, performing operand forwarding by forwarding the first operand, either whole or in part, as it is being read to the first dependent instruction prior to execution; performing result forwarding by forwarding a result of the second source instruction, either whole or in part, to the second dependent instruction, after execution; wherein the operand forwarding is performed by executing the first source instruction together with the first dependent instruction; and wherein the result forwarding is performed by executing the second source instruction together with the second dependent instruction. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090240929 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR REDUCED OVERHEAD ADDRESS MODE CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN A PIPELINED, RECYLING MICROPROCESSOR - A method, system, and computer program product for reduced overhead address mode change management in a pipelined, recycling microprocessor are provided. The recycling microprocessor includes logic executing thereon. The microprocessor also includes an instruction fetch unit (IFU) supporting computation of address adds in selected address modes and reporting non-equal comparison of the computation to the logic. The microprocessor further includes a fixed point unit determining whether the mode has changed and reporting changes to the logic. Upon determining the comparison yields an equal result but the mode has changed, a recycle event is triggered to ensure subsequent ofetches are relaunched in the correct mode and that no execution writebacks occur from work performed in an incorrect mode. For comparisons yielding a non-equal result and a changed mode, the logic clears bits set in response to the determinations, and a serialization event is taken to reset a corresponding pipeline for operation in the correct mode. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090241084 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR EXPLOITING ORTHOGONAL CONTROL VECTORS IN TIMING DRIVEN SYSTEMS - Systems, methods and computer program products for exploiting orthogonal control vectors in timing driven systems. An exemplary embodiment includes running an initial logic synthesis run on the system, identifying critical inputs to a logic cone related to the run, identifying orthogonal vectors in the logic cone, adding vectors to the logic cone, obtaining logical solutions and selecting a solution from the logical solutions. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20110167244 | EARLY INSTRUCTION TEXT BASED OPERAND STORE COMPARE REJECT AVOIDANCE - A method and system for early instruction text based operand store compare avoidance in a processor are provided. The system includes a processor pipeline for processing instruction text in an instruction stream, where the instruction text includes operand address information. The system also includes delay logic to monitor the instruction stream. The delay logic performs a method that includes detecting a load instruction following a store instruction in the instruction stream, comparing the operand address information of the store instruction with the load instruction. The method also includes delaying the load instruction in the processor pipeline in response to detecting a common field value between the operand address information of the store instruction and the load instruction. | 07-07-2011 |
