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US 6,212,624 B1Granted
Selective canonizing on mode transitions
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorArif I. Khan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is a method and apparatus for canonizing a register set on a mode transition. A reference to the register set during instruction decoding is detected. A flag based on a result of the detecting and a type of the mode transition is generated. The generated flag is used to control a microcode to canonize the register set.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- (a) detecting a reference to the register set during instruction decoding;
- (b) generating a flag based on the detected reference and a type of a mode transition;
- and
- (c) controlling a sequencer of a microcode to provide an address to a routine in the microcode, the routine canonizing the register set according to the generated flag.
1 more element
An apparatus comprising:
- (a) a detector to detect a reference to a register set during instruction decoding;
- and
- (b) a flag generator coupled to the detector to generate a flag based on the detected reference and a type of a mode transition, the flag controlling a sequencer of a microcode to provide an address to a routine in the microcode, the routine canonizing the register set.
A processor comprising:
- a decode unit;
- a register set;
- and
- a selective canonizing unit coupled to the decode unit for selectively canonizing the register set on a mode transition, the selective canonizing unit comprising:
- (a) a detector to detect a reference to a register set during instruction decoding;
- and
- (b) a flag generator coupled to the detector to generate a flag based on the detected reference and a type of a mode transition, the flag controlling a sequencer of a microcode to provide an address to a routine in the microcode, the routine canonizing the register set.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.