General purpose hardware to replace faulty core components that may also provide additional processor functionality

An apparatus comprising a processor, the processor including:

• a plurality of execution units of a core;
• a proxy unit;
• mapping logic coupled to the plurality of execution units and the proxy unit, the mapping logic to map an instruction to be associated with an execution unit of the plurality of execution units of the core to the proxy unit in response to a failure associated with the execution unit;
• and
• programmable general purpose execution logic capable of being programmed to implement functionality of the execution unit to execute the instruction in response to receiving the instruction from the proxy unit responsive to the mapping logic mapping the instruction to the proxy unit, wherein the programmable general purpose execution logic is not used to replace one or more non-failed execution units of the plurality of execution units of the core, and wherein the programmable general purpose execution logic is capable of being programmed to implement functionalities of different types of execution units.

A method comprising:

• determining if a functional unit in a processor is defective;
• scheduling an operation on a port that corresponds with the functional unit and executing the operation with the functional unit in response to determining the functional unit is not defective;
• mapping the operation to a proxy port associated with a general purpose execution unit in response to determining the functional unit is defective;
• wherein the functional unit is only a portion of processor pipeline and another portion of the processor pipeline is still used to process the operation after the mapping of the operation to the general purpose execution unit, and wherein the general purpose execution unit is more general purpose than the functional unit;
• scheduling the operation on the proxy port associated with the general purpose unit in response to mapping the operation to the proxy port;
• dispatching the operation to the proxy port in response to scheduling the operation on the proxy port;
• sending the operation to the general purpose execution unit responsive to receiving the operation at the proxy port in response to dispatching the operation to the proxy port;
• and
• executing the operation with the general purpose execution unit responsive to mapping the operation to the proxy port in response to determining the functional unit is defective.