Qualcomm Incorporated

Charles Joseph Tabony

Lucian Codrescu

Erich Plondke

Suresh Kumar Venkumahanti

Ajay Anant Ingle

Mao Zeng

Evandro Carlos Menezes

Arvind Krishnaswamy

Robert Allan Lester

Swaminathan Balasubramanian

Erich James Plondke

Methods, systems, and devices for techniques for instruction perturbation for improved device security are described. A device may assign a set of executable instructions to an instruction packet based on a parameter associated with the instruction packet, and each executable instruction of the set of executable instructions may be independent from other executable instructions of the set of executable instructions. The device may select an order of the set of executable instructions based on a slot instruction rule associated with the device, and each executable instruction of the set of executable instructions may correspond to a respective slot associated with memory of the device. The device may modify the order of the set of executable instructions in a memory hierarchy post pre-decode based on the slot instruction rule and process the set of executable instructions of the instruction packet based on the modified order.

Techniques for instruction perturbation for improved device security

Systems and methods for generating a floating point constant value from an instruction are disclosed. A first field of the instruction is decoded as a sign bit of the floating point constant value. A second field of the instruction is decoded to correspond to an exponent value of the floating point constant value. A third field of the instruction is decoded to correspond to the significand of the floating point constant value. The first field, the second field, and the third field are combined to form the floating point constant value. The exponent value may include a bias, and a bias constant may be added to the exponent value to compensate for the bias. The third field may comprise the most significant bits of the significand. Optionally, the second field and the third field may be shifted by first and second shift values respectively before they are combined to form the floating point constant value.

Floating point constant generation instruction

Systems and methods for tracking and switching between execution modes in processing systems. A processing system is configured to execute instructions in at least two instruction execution triodes including a first and second execution mode chosen from a classic/aligned mode and a compressed/unaligned mode. Target addresses of selected instructions such as calls and returns are forcibly misaligned in the compressed mode, such one or more bits, such as, the least significant bits (alignment bits) of the target address in the compressed mode are different from the corresponding alignment bits in the classic mode. When the selected instructions are encountered during execution in the first mode, a decision to switch operation to the second mode is based on analyzing the alignment bits of the target address of the selected instruction.

Using the least significant bits of a called function's address to switch processor modes

A system and method of processing a hierarchical very long instruction word (VLIW) packet is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, a method of processing instructions is disclosed. The method includes receiving a hierarchical VLIW packet of instructions and decoding an instruction from the packet to determine whether the instruction is a single instruction or whether the instruction includes a subpacket that includes a plurality of sub-instructions. The method also includes, in response to determining that the instruction includes the subpacket, executing each of the sub-instructions.

System and method of processing hierarchical very long instruction packets

An apparatus includes a memory that stores an instruction including an opcode and an operand. The operand specifies an immediate value or a register indicator of a register storing the immediate value. The immediate value is usable to identify a function call address. The function call address is selectable from a plurality of function call addresses.

Table call instruction for frequently called functions

In a particular embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes receiving an instruction packet including a first instruction and a second instruction that is dependent on the first instruction at a processor having a plurality of parallel execution pipelines, including a first execution pipeline and a second execution pipeline. The method further includes executing in parallel at least a portion of the first instruction and at least a portion of the second instruction. The method also includes selectively committing a second result of executing the at least a portion of the second instruction with the second execution pipeline based on a first result related to execution of the first instruction with the first execution pipeline.

System and method for generating and using predicates within a single instruction packet

An apparatus includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores an instruction packet (e.g., a VLIW instruction packet) including a first predicate independent instruction and a second predicate independent instruction. Each of the predicate independent instructions has the same destination.

Executing instruction packet with multiple instructions with same destination by performing logical operation on results of instructions and storing the result to the destination

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Charles Joseph Tabony