Method and Apparatus for Back End Gather/Scatter Memory Coalescing

Abstract

A system for processing gather and scatter instructions can implement a front-end subsystem, a back-end subsystem, or both. The front-end subsystem includes a prediction unit configured to determine a predicted quantity of coalesced memory access operations required by an instruction. A decode unit converts the instruction into a plurality of access operations based on the predicted quantity, and transmits the plurality of access operations and an indication of the predicted quantity to an issue queue. The back-end subsystem includes a load-store unit that receives a plurality of access operations corresponding to an instruction, determines a subset of the plurality of access operations that can be coalesced, and forms a coalesced memory access operation from the subset. A queue stores multiple memory addresses for a given load-store entry to provide for execution of coalesced memory accesses.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.