Inserting predefined pad values into a stream of vectors
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsAsheesh Bhardwaj, Timothy David Anderson, Son Hung Tran
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Software instructions are executed on a processor within a computer system to configure a streaming engine with stream parameters to define a multidimensional array. The stream parameters define a size for each dimension of the multidimensional array and a pad value indicator. Data is fetched from a memory coupled to the streaming engine responsive to the stream parameters. A stream of vectors is formed for the multidimensional array responsive to the stream parameters from the data fetched from memory. A padded stream vector is formed that includes a specified pad value without accessing the pad value from system memory.
Claims20
A device comprising:
- a processor core;
- a memory;
- a register configured to store a template that specifies, for a set of data:
- a data width of the set of data along a first dimension;
- an amount of data to retrieve from the memory to form a first portion of the set of data in the first dimension;
- and
- a pad value to use for a second portion of the set of data in the first dimension;
- and
- a stream circuit coupled between the processor core and configured to, based on a stream open instruction that is associated with the template:
- generate the set of data by:
- retrieving data of the first portion from the memory;
- and
- generating the second portion of the set of data based on the pad value without accessing the memory;
- and
- provide the set of data to the processor core.
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a circuit device, a stream instruction;
- and
- based on the stream instruction:
- receiving, from a register, a template that specifies, for a set of data:
- a width of the set of data along a first dimension;
- a subset of the set of data to retrieve from a memory for a first portion of the set of data in the first dimension;
- and
- a pad value for a second portion of the set of data in the first dimension;
- retrieving, from the memory, the subset of the set of data;
- generating the second portion of the set of data based on the pad value without accessing the memory;
- and
- providing the set of data to a processing circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.