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US 5,848,288 AGranted
Method and apparatus for accommodating different issue width implementations of VLIW architectures
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorDennis M. O'Connor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus which permits a computer system to execute variable size instruction bundles. A processor fetches an instruction issue group of the size it can issue in one cycle. By detecting if an end of bundle exists in an instruction issue group and disabling the issue of instruction following an end of bundle, the computer is enabled to execute code compiled for arbitrary bundle size.
Claims16
A computer system comprising:
- a bus;
- a processor having an issue width, the processor coupled to the bus and including,
- an instruction fetch unit that fetches an issue group of instructions from a memory, and
- an end of bundle detector that detects if an end of bundle exists within the issue group;
- and
- the memory coupled to the bus and having stored therein a plurality of bundles of instructions all instructions in a bundle capable of parallel issue, the bundles of instructions being a size up to a maximum size, the maximum size independent of the issue width of the processor.
3 more elements
A computer system comprising:
- a bus;
- a processor having an issue width, the processor coupled to the bus and including, an instruction fetch unit that fetches an issue group of instructions from a memory, and an end of bundle detector that detects if an end of bundle exists within the issue group;
- the memory coupled to the bus and having stored therein a plurality of bundles of instructions, the bundles of instructions being a size up to a maximum size, the maximum size independent of the issue width of the processor;
- and
- a retirement unit within the processor to insure a later issued instruction can read a valid data from a register modified by an earlier issued instruction of a same bundle, the retirement unit updating the register responsive to a detected end of bundle.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.