Configurable processor system
AssigneeXilinx, Inc.
InventorEric J. Crabill
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A programmable integrated circuit can be designed to emulate, on demand, one of several commonly used microprocessors. It contains a configurable instruction processing unit and a superset datapath unit. The instruction processing unit further contains a configurable microcode unit and a non-configurable sequencing unit. The programmable integrated circuit can be programmed so that a microcode compatible with a target microprocessor is installed in the configurable microcode unit. The superset datapath unit is a superset of the datapath elements of all the target microprocessors.
Claims5
An integrated circuit that can emulate one of a plurality of microprocessors each having registers and executing macroinstructions, said integrated circuit comprising:
- a configurable portion storing a microcode;
- a non-configurable sequencing logic portion;
- and
- a datapath unit having a register file that is a superset of said registers of said plurality of microprocessors;
- wherein said configurable portion, said sequencing logic portion and said datapath unit can execute said macroinstructions to generate compatible results as said one microprocessor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.