US 2015/0089207 A1 · TECHNIQUE FOR COUNTING VALUES IN A REGISTER

Abstract

A parallel counter accesses data generated by an application and stored within a register. The register includes different segments that include different portions of the application data. The parallel counter is configured to count the number of values within each segment that have a particular characteristic in a parallel fashion. The parallel counter may then return the individual segment counts to the application, or combine those segment counts and return a register count to the application. Advantageously, applications that rely on population count operations may be accelerated. Further, increasing the number of segments in a given register may reduce the time needed to count the values in that register, thereby providing a scalable solution to population counting. Additionally, the architecture of the parallel counter is sufficiently flexible to allow both register counting and segment counting, thereby combining two separate functionalities into just one hardware unit.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for counting values in a register, the method comprising:

receiving a first data set from an application;
storing a first portion of the first data set in a first segment of a register;
storing a second portion of the first data set in a second segment of the register;
determining a first number of values within the first segment that have an identifiable characteristic substantially in parallel with determining a second number of values within the second segment that have the identifiable characteristic;
and
returning the first number of values and the second number of values to the application.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Technique for counting values in a register

Life of this patent

Technique for counting values in a register

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20