Processor architecture having independently fetching issuing and updating operations of instructions which are sequentially assigned and stored in order fetched

A data processing system for processing information in response to a series of instructions including instructions that control arithmetic operations on the information, the data processing system comprising:

• register means for storing information;
• fetching means for continuously fetching instructions from the series of instructions;
• shelving means coupled to the fetching means to receive fetched instructions and to store multiple such instructions in the order fetched and to store a unique instruction identifier with each instruction;
• scheduling means coupled to the shelving means for continuously selecting instructions in the shelving means for which all information required for execution is stored in one of the register means or the shelving means and for issuing those instructions for executing in an order independent of the order in which those instructions were fetched and responsive to availability of information needed for execution of said instructions;
• arithmetic means coupled to the scheduling means for performing operations on information in one of the register means or the shelving means in response to instructions supplied from the shelving means to generate execution results, the arithmetic means further coupled to the shelving means so that the shelving means receives the results of execution of instructions and is capable of storing the result of the execution of every instruction stored within said shelving means along with a unique result identifier;
• and
• means for copying results of the execution of the oldest instruction in the shelving means into the register means and removing that instruction from the shelving means;
• and
• wherein the shelving means stores one or more unique instruction identifiers with each instruction requiring information needed to execute, the unique instruction identifiers identifying instructions generating the information needed to execute the instruction.

A data processing system for processing information in response to a series of instructions including instructions that control arithmetic operations on the information, the data processing system comprising:

• register means for storing information comprising an array of registers, each register having a unique register number;
• fetching means for continuously fetching instructions from the series of instructions, each arithmetic instruction in the series of instructions containing a destination comprising a register number and containing at least one operand register number;
• shelving means coupled to the fetching means to receive fetched instructions and to store multiple such instructions in the order fetched, wherein for each operand of each instruction stored in the shelving means for which there is a set of instructions in the shelving means whose destination equals the operand of the instruction, the shelving means stores a locker, equal to the unique identifier of the most recently fetched instruction from that set;
• scheduling means coupled to the shelving means for continuously selecting instructions in the shelving means for which all information required for execution is stored in one of the register means or the shelving means and for issuing those instructions for executing in an order independent of the order in which those instructions were fetched and responsive to availability of information needed for execution of said instructions, the scheduling means determining that all information required for executing an arithmetic instruction is stored only when, for each operand contained in that instruction, either no instruction in the shelving means has a destination equal to that operand or the results of the most-recently-fetched instruction in the shelving means whose destination equals that operand are available;
• arithmetic means coupled to the scheduling means for performing operations on information in one of the register means or the shelving means in response to instructions supplied from the shelving means to generate execution results, the arithmetic means further coupled to the shelving means so that the shelving means receives the results of execution of instructions and is capable of storing the result of the execution of every instruction stored within said shelving means;
• and
• means for copying results of the execution of the oldest instruction in the shelving means into the register means and removing that instruction from the shelving means.

A data processing system for processing information in response to a series of instructions including instructions that control arithmetic operations on the information, the data processing system comprising:

• register means for storing information;
• fetching means for continuously fetching instructions from the series of instructions;
• shelving means coupled to the fetching means to receive fetched instructions and to store multiple such instructions in the order fetched;
• scheduling means coupled to the shelving means for continuously selecting instructions in the shelving means for which all information required for execution is stored in one of the register means or the shelving means and for issuing those instructions for executing in an order independent of the order in which those instructions were fetched and responsive to availability of information needed for execution of said instructions;
• multiple arithmetic means coupled to the scheduling means for simultaneously performing operations on information in one of the register means or the shelving means in response to instructions supplied from the shelving means to generate execution results, the arithmetic means further coupled to the shelving means so that the shelving means receives the results of execution of instructions and is capable of storing the result of the execution of every instruction stored within said shelving means, the scheduling means being capable of simultaneously supplying each of several of the arithmetic means with a different instruction from the shelving means, along with the information needed to execute each of said different instructions stored in either the register means or the shelving means;
• and
• means for copying results of the execution of the oldest instruction in the shelving means into the register means and removing that instruction from the shelving means.

A data processing system for processing information in response to a chronologically ordered series of instructions, wherein certain instructions of the series perform arithmetic operations on one or more operands identified by a register identifier, the data processing system comprising:

• a register array including a plurality of registers, each register storing information associated with a register identifier;
• an instruction fetcher for fetching instructions from the series of instructions;
• an instruction shelver coupled to the instruction fetcher to receive fetched instructions and to store multiple such instructions, each stored instruction being stored within a data entry that includes an instruction field for holding the stored instruction, a result field for holding a result of the instruction, and a destination field for holding a register identifier associated with the result of the instruction;
• an instruction scheduler coupled to the instruction shelver for continuously selecting instructions in the instruction shelver for which all operands required for execution are stored in one of the register array or the result fields of data entries within the instruction shelver and for issuing those instructions for executing in an order independent of the chronological order of the series of instructions and responsive to availability of operands needed for execution of said instructions;
• an arithmetic execution unit coupled to the instruction scheduler and the instruction shelver for executing an instruction issued by the instruction scheduler and transmitting the result of the issued instruction to the result field of the data entry within which the issued instruction is stored, wherein an operand required for execution of the issued instruction and identified by a first register identifier is obtained from the register array only when no data entry within the instruction shelver includes an executed instruction and a destination field holding the first register identifier, and when a set of one or more data entries include an executed instruction and a destination field holding the first register identifier, obtaining the required information from the result field of the data entry of the set having the most recently executed instruction;
• means for copying the result field of the oldest data entry in the instruction shelver into the register identified by the destination field of that data entry and removing that data entry from the instruction shelver.

A data processing system for processing information in response to a series of instructions including instructions that control arithmetic operations on the information, the data processing system comprising:

• register means for storing information;
• fetching means for continuously fetching instructions from the series of instructions;
• shelving means coupled to the fetching means to receive fetched instructions and to store multiple such instructions in the order fetched, wherein each instruction within said shelving means is identified by a sequential instruction identifier assigned in the order fetched;
• scheduling means coupled to the shelving means for continuously selecting instructions in the shelving means for which all information required for execution is available in one of the register means or the shelving means and for issuing those instructions for execution in an order independent of the order in which those instructions were fetched;
• arithmetic means coupled to the scheduling means for performing operations on information in one of the register means or the shelving means in response to instructions supplied from the shelving means to generate execution results, the arithmetic means further coupled to the shelving means so that the shelving means receives the results of execution of instructions and is capable of storing the one and only one copy of the result of the execution of every instruction stored within said shelving means;
• and
• retirement means for copying results of the execution of the oldest instruction in the shelving means into the register means and removing that instruction from the shelving means.