Method and device for generating an exception
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
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving an instruction at an execution unit of a data processor;
- and
- providing a resultant that is a NaN of a first type in response to determining during execution that a first operand of the instruction is a NaN of a second type.
A processing device comprising:
- a fetch unit to fetch an instruction;
- and
- an execution unit to provide a NaN resultant of a first type in response to determining that a first operand of the instruction is a NaN of a second type.
A method comprising:
- receiving a first instruction at an execution unit of a data processor;
- providing a first floating-point NaN resultant based on the instruction that is a NaN of a type that does not cause an exception to be generated;
- receiving a second instruction at the execution unit having the floating point NaN resultant as an operand, and
- generating an exception event in response to determining during execution that the operand of the second instruction is the floating-point NaN of the type that does not cause an exception to be generated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.