Floating point processor having concurrent exponent/mantissa operation
AssigneeData General Corporation
InventorDavid L. Whipple
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Floating Point Processor or Floating Point Unit (FPU) with capability for performing exponent/sign-related calculations concurrently with mantissa-related calculations. The operation of the FPU within the context of a general purpose digital computer system is shown. The FPU has control, mantissa, and exponent/sign functional blocks which have unique architectural arrangements and interconnections therebetween, and also have interfacing structure for connecting system control and clock signals to the control block. The operation of the FPU is timed in a particular manner to permit its operation to be transparent to, or to not impact operation of the CPU, when the FPU communicates with main memory or the CPU.
Claims20
An FPU for making floating point calculations within a data processing system including processing means for processing said data, memory means for storing said data and for storing instructions which are used in control of operation of said system, input bus for conducting said data and instructions from said processor means to said memory means, output bus for conducting said data and instructions from said memory means to said processor means, said processor means including instruction means arranged to store one of said instructions at a time for controlling and permitting derivation of control of said operation of said system, said FPU comprising:
- control means including means for receiving state signals and responsive to both operation of said instruction means and to said state signals, for providing FPU control signals to control operation of said FPU;
- mantissa means connected between said input bus and said output bus, including means for conducting certain of said data therebetween, means for receiving certain of said FPU control signals from said control means, means for providing the mantissa means contribution to said state signals to said control means, responsive to said certain of said FPU control signals for manipulating mantissa portions of said certain of said data in a first pre-determined manner;
- and
- exponent/sign means including means for receiving other certain of said FPU control signals from said controls means, means for providing the exponent/sign means contribution to said state signals to said control means, responsive to said other certain of said FPU control signals for manipulating other than said mantissa portions of said certain of said data received from said mantissa means in a second pre-determined manner concurrently with operation of said mantissa means;
- whereby the concurrent operation of said exponent/sign means and said mantissa means under control of said control means provides said floating point calculations within said data processing system.
A floating point unit for making floating point calculations within a data processing system, including a CPU for processing said data and a main memory for storing said data, said floating point unit comprising:
- control means for providing control signals to control operation of said floating point unit;
- mantissa means including means for providing mantissa state signals to said control means, responsive to certain said control signals for manipulating mantissa portions of said data in a first predetermined manner to produce a mantissa result;
- exponent/sign means including means for providing exponent/sign state signals to said control means, responsive to other certain said control signals for manipulating other than said mantissa portions of said data in a second predetermined manner and concurrently with operation of said mantissa means to produce an exponent/sign result, and a MEMIN bus and MEMOUT bus for interconnecting said floating point unit, said CPU, and said memory with data paths.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.