Dependence-chain processor
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsSriram Vajapeyam, Bohuslav Rychlik, John P. Shen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for a processor microarchitecture that quickly and efficiently takes large steps through program segments without fetching all intervening instructions. The microarchitecture processes descriptors of trace sequences in program order so as to locate and dispatch descriptors of dependence chains that are used to fetch and execute the instructions of the dependence chain in data flow order.
Claims30
A logic circuit comprising:
- a control flow logic to select a trace descriptor for processing including at least one dependency descriptor including dependency information for each instruction sequence;
- and
- a data flow logic coupled to the control flow logic to execute a plurality of instruction sequences according to the dependency information stored in the dependency descriptor.
A computer system comprising:
- at least one memory device;
- a bus coupled to the at least one memory device;
- a control flow logic to analyze dependencies among instruction sequences and creates a dependency descriptor including dependency information for each instruction sequence;
- and
- a data flow logic coupled to the control flow logic to execute a plurality of the instruction sequences according to the dependency information stored in the dependency descriptor.
A method of processing instructions comprising:
- fetching a trace descriptor;
- separating out a dependency descriptor including dependency information for a set of instructions from the trace descriptor;
- fetching the set of instructions described by dependency descriptor;
- and
- executing a plurality of the instruction sequences according to the dependencies stored in the dependency descriptor.
A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
- fetching a trace descriptor;
- separating out a dependency descriptor including dependency information for a set of instructions from the trace descriptor;
- fetching the set of instructions described by dependency descriptor;
- and
- executing a plurality of the instruction sequences according to the dependencies stored in the dependency descriptor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.