Unaligned memory operands
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsPatrice Roussel, Eric Sprangle, Glenn J. Hinton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of obtaining an operand from a memory device includes reading a first operand from a first location in a memory device, the first operand including part of the operand specified by an instruction, shifting the first operand by a first shift amount, reading a second data operand from the memory device, the second operand having part of the operand specified by the instruction, shifting the second operand by a second shift amount, and combining the first shifted data entry and the second shifted data entry to produce an aligned operand, wherein shifting the first operand and shifting the second operand is performed by a shifter also used for floating point functions.
Claims29
A method of obtaining an operand from a memory device, the method comprising:
- reading a first operand from a first location in a memory device, the first operand including part of the operand specified by an instruction;
- shifting the first operand by a first shift amount;
- reading a second data operand from the memory device, the second operand having part of the operand specified by the instruction;
- shifting the second operand by a second shift amount;
- and
- combining the first shifted data entry and the second shifted data entry to produce an aligned operand,
- wherein shifting the first operand and shifting the second operand is performed by a shifter also used for floating point functions.
An article comprising a machine-readable medium that stores machine-executable instructions for obtaining an operand from a memory device, the instructions causing a machine to:
- read a first operand from a first location in a memory device, the first operand including part of the operand specified by an instruction;
- shift the first operand by a first shift amount;
- read a second data operand from the memory device, the second operand having part of the operand specified by the instruction;
- shift the second operand by a second shift amount;
- and
- combine the first shifted data entry and the second shifted data entry to produce an aligned operand,
- wherein shifting the first operand and shifting the second operand is performed by a shifter also used for floating point functions.
An apparatus for obtaining an operand from a memory device comprising:
- a memory device that stores data and executable instructions;
- a floating point unit having a set of registers and a shifter for shifting operands;
- and
- a processor that executes the instructions to:
- read a first operand from a first location in the memory device, the first operand including part of the operand specified by an instruction;
- shift the first operand by a first shift amount;
- read a second operand from the memory device, the second operand having part of the operand specified by the instruction;
- shift the second operand by a second shift amount;
- and
- combine the first shifted data entry and the second shifted data entry to produce an aligned operand.
A computer instruction comprises:
- a load unaligned operand instruction that causes a processor to:
- read a first operand from a first location in a memory device, the first operand including part of the operand specified by an instruction;
- shift the first operand by a first shift amount;
- read a second data operand from the memory device, the second operand having part of the operand specified by the instruction;
- shift the second operand by a second shift amount;
- and
- combine the first shifted data entry and the second shifted data entry to produce an aligned operand,
- wherein shifting the first operand and shifting the second operand is performed by a shifter also used for floating point functions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.