Method and device for handling data values
AssigneeFreescale Semiconductor, Inc.
InventorWilliam C. Moyer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A floating point value can represent a number or something that is not a number (NaN). A floating point value that is a NaN having data field that stores information, such as a propagation count that indicates the number of times a NaN value has been propagated through instructions. A NaN evaluation instruction can determine whether one or more operands is a NaN operand of a particular type, and if so can generate a result that is a NaN of a different type. An exception can be generated based upon the NaN of the different type being provided as a resultant
Claims21
A method comprising:
- receiving at an execution unit of a data processor a first floating point instruction identifying a first floating point operand comprising a first portion and a second portion;
- and
- in response to determining at the data processor that a first condition is met that includes the first portion having a NaN indicator that indicates the first floating point operand is not a number, incrementing a first value at the second portion to generate an incremented value.
A method comprising:
- receiving at an execution unit of a data processor a first floating point instruction identifying at least one floating point operand;
- and
- generating a resultant for the first floating point instruction comprising a NaN indicator and a predefined value, the predefined value indicative that the resultant was not determined based upon a NaN operand.
A processor device that executes floating point instructions to generate a resultant, each floating point operand and floating point resultant having a plurality of bit locations including a first location that includes a first set of one or more bits and a second location that includes a second set of one or more bits, the processor device comprising:
- a fetch unit to fetch a floating point instruction;
- and
- an execution unit that, in response to a first condition being present during execution of the floating point instruction, is to increment a first value stored at the first location of a first floating point operand of the floating point instruction to generate a first incremented value, the first condition being present in response to a value stored at the second location of the first operand indicting the first operand is a NaN.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.