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US 6,754,812 B1Granted
Hardware predication for conditional instruction path branching
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsMohammad A. Abdallah, Khalid D. Al-Dajani
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An instruction associated with a condition is executed when the condition is resolved. In executing the instruction, a first operation designated by the instruction is performed to produce a first result, and a second operation is performed to produce a second result. The first result or the second result is output based on how the condition is resolved.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- executing an identified conditional instruction having an associated first instruction path and a second instruction path, the executing comprising:
- (i) performing both a first operation from the first instruction path to produce a first result and a second operation from the second instruction path to produce a second result, and
- (ii) outputting the first result or the second result based on how a condition associated with the conditional instruction is resolved.
A processor comprising:
- an operation unit to perform an operation designated by a conditional instruction on one or more operands for the conditional instruction to produce a first result;
- a bypass bus coupled to an input of the operation unit to receive an operand for the conditional instruction and to present the operand as a second result;
- and
- a multiplexer to selectively output either the first result or the second result based on how a condition associated with the conditional instruction is resolved.
1 more element
A processor comprising:
- (a) a dispatch/execute unit to dispatch and execute instructions for a program out of order, the dispatch/execute unit comprising an execution unit to perform both a first operation from a first instruction path associated with a conditional instruction to produce a first result and a second operation from a second instruction path associated with the conditional instruction to produce a second result and to output the first result or the second result based on how a condition associated with the conditional instruction is resolved;
- (b) a reorder buffer to store results of executed instructions;
- and
- (c) a retire unit to retire results of executed instructions.
1 more element
A computer system comprising:
- (a) a memory to store instructions of a program;
- and
- (b) a processor to perform both a first operation from a first instruction path associated with a conditional instruction to produce a first result and a second operation from a second instruction path associated with the conditional instruction to produce a second result and to output the first result or the second result based on how a condition associated with the conditional instruction is resolved.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.