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US 7,689,814 B2Granted
Methods and apparatus for disabling error countermeasures in a processing system
AssigneeSony Computer Entertainment Inc.
InventorYasukichi Okawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for disabling error handling countermeasures in various processing contexts, such as by monitoring whether a given processing context requires error handling countermeasures; and disabling any recoverable error correction countermeasures when such countermeasures are not required.
Claims55
A method of processing instructions and data, comprising:
- determining whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with an instruction or data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- disabling the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure;
- wherein the determination of whether the error correction countermeasure should be used comprises checking whether an address specified by the instruction or the data is within a range of addresses.
1 more element
A method of processing instructions and data, comprising:
- determining whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with an instruction or data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- disabling the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure;
- wherein the instruction is a load instruction or a store instruction.
1 more element
A method of processing instructions and data, comprising:
- determining whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with an instruction or data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- disabling the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure
- wherein the instruction is a DMA data transfer instruction.
1 more element
A method of processing instructions and data, comprising:
- determining whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with an instruction or data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- disabling the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure;
- wherein the determination of whether the error correction countermeasure should be used is performed in a memory management unit by checking an attribute table while performing address translation.
1 more element
A method of processing instructions and data, comprising:
- determining whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with an instruction or data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- disabling the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure;
- wherein the instruction or the data has an attribute indicating whether the error correction countermeasure should be used when executing the instruction or processing the data, and the attribute is included in a transaction packet for transmitting the instruction or the data to a device.
1 more element
A method of processing instructions and data,
- determining whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with an instruction or data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- disabling the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure;
- wherein determining whether the error correction countermeasure should be used includes identifying multiple error correction countermeasures and selecting one or more of the multiple error correction countermeasures for disabling.
1 more element
A processor for processing instructions and data, comprising:
- means for analyzing an instruction or the data to determine whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with the instruction or the data to correct an error of the instruction or data;
- and
- means for disabling the error correction countermeasure based upon the determination, so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction or data will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure.
A system capable of processing error correction countermeasures associated with instructions and data, the system comprising:
- a processor including:
- means for analyzing a selected instruction or selected data to determine whether any error correction countermeasures should be used in association with the selected instruction or the selected data to correct an error of the selected instruction or the selected data,
- means for enabling or disabling at least one of the error correction countermeasures in accordance with the determination, if the means for determining determines that the selected instruction or the selected data should be executed by the processor, so that if the at least one of the error correction countermeasures is disabled, then the error of the selected instruction or data will not be corrected by the at least one of the error correction countermeasures, and
- means for propagating the selected instruction or the selected data;
- and
- a device operable to receive the selected instruction or the selected data from the propagating means.
3 more elements
A method of processing instructions, comprising:
- obtaining an address associated with an instruction issued by a processor;
- determining whether the address is within a predetermined range of addresses in a memory;
- and
- disabling any error correction countermeasures when the address is within the predetermined range so that if the error correction countermeasures within the predetermined range are disabled, then any error within the predetermined range will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasures.
1 more element
A method of processing instructions, comprising:
- obtaining an address from a data transfer command issued by a processor;
- accessing an address translation table to determine a physical address in a memory that is associated with the address of the data transfer command;
- accessing an attribute table to obtain an error correction attribute that is associated with at least one of the address of the data transfer command and the physical address;
- and
- disabling at least one error correction countermeasure when the associated attribute so indicates;
- wherein if the at least one error correction countermeasure is disabled, then any error associated with the at least one of the address of the data transfer command and the physical address will not be corrected by the error correction countermeasure.
3 more elements
A processing system for processing instructions, comprising:
- a plurality of processing devices operable to issue instructions, execute instructions, or both issue and execute instructions, a first one of the processing devices comprising a processing unit or a subprocessing unit;
- wherein the first of the processing devices is programmed to determine whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with a selected instruction to correct an error of the instruction, and to disable the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction will not be corrected.
A processor for processing instructions, comprising:
- a processing element including a bus, a processing unit and a plurality of subprocessing units connected to the processing unit by the bus, the processor being connectable to a memory and being operable to issue instructions, execute instructions, or both issue and execute instructions;
- wherein the processor is programmed to determine whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with a selected instruction to correct an error of the instruction, and to disable the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction will not be corrected.
A computer processing system, comprising:
- a user input device;
- a display interface for attachment of a display device;
- and
- a processor comprising one or more processing elements, at least one of the processing elements being programmed to issue instructions, to execute instructions, to determine whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with a selected instruction to correct an error of the selected instruction, and to disable the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the instruction will not be corrected.
1 more element
A computer network, comprising:
- a plurality of computer processing systems connected to one another via a communications network, each of the computer processing systems comprising:
- a user input device;
- a display interface for attachment of a display device;
- and
- a processor comprising one or more processing elements, at least one of the processing elements being programmed to issue instructions, to execute instructions, to determine whether an error correction countermeasure should be used in association with a selected instruction to correct an error of the selected instruction, and to disable the use of the error correction countermeasure based on the determination so that if the error correction countermeasure is disabled, then the error of the selected instruction will not be corrected.
2 more elements
A system comprising:
- a plurality of processors configured to execute processor tasks;
- an execution unit for managing a reallocation of the processor tasks among the plurality of processors;
- and
- a detecting unit for detecting an attribute of a selected one of the processor tasks;
- wherein the execution unit reallocates the processor tasks depending upon the attribute of the selected processor task, the attribute is assigned based upon a data type, and the data type indicates whether a data error or defect is noticeable to a user, and
- wherein if the data error or defect is not noticeable to a user, then the data error or defect will not be corrected.
3 more elements
A method of processing instructions, comprising:
- determining an initial allocation of processor tasks among multiple processors;
- detecting an attribute associated with a selected one of the processor tasks;
- and
- reallocating the processor tasks based upon the attribute of the selected processor task;
- wherein the attribute is assigned based upon a data type which indicates whether a data error or defect is noticeable to a user, and if the data error or defect is not noticeable to a user, then the data error or defect will not be corrected.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.