Intel Corporation

Other

David B Papworth

Glenn J Hinton

Michael A Fetterman

Andrew F Glew

Robert P Colwell

Robert W Martell

Ashwani Kumar Gupta

Reynold V D'Sa

Bradley D Hoyt

Subramanian Natarajan

Sunil R Shenoy

Haitham H Akkary

Paul D Madland

Kris G Konigsfeld

Jeffrey M Abramson

Elmoustapha Ould-Ahmed-Vall

Bret L Toll

Jesus Corbal

Jason W Brandt

Edward Thomas Grochowski

Stephen H Gunther

Darrell D Boggs

Shantanu R Gupta

Robert S Chappell

Thomas R Huff

James D Allen

Buford M Guy

James L Schwartz

Christopher J Hughes

Martin Guy Dixon

Lihu Rappoport

Ronak Singhal

William Rash

Frederick J Pollack

Atiq A Bajwa

Narayan Hegde

Seyed Yahya Sotoudeh

Bharath Muthiah

Steven J Griffith

Glenn I Hinton

Bryant E Bigbee

Shahrokh Shahidzadeh

Lawrence O Smith

Frank Binns

Scott D Hahn

John M Bauer

David W Clift

James S Griffith

Jeffery M Abramson

Michael M Hancock

Beth Schultz

Scott Hayn

Grace C Chen

Stephen M Coward

Gregory P Meece

Michael Alan Fetterman

Embodiments of an invention a processor architecture are disclosed. In an embodiment, a processor includes a decoder, an execution unit, a coherent cache, and an interconnect. The decoder is to decode an instruction to zero a cache line. The execution unit is to issue a write command to initiate a cache line sized write of zeros. The coherent cache is to receive the write command, to determine whether there is a hit in the coherent cache and whether a cache coherency protocol state of the hit cache line is a modified state or an exclusive state, to configure a cache line to indicate all zeros, and to issue the write command toward the interconnect. The interconnect is to, responsive to receipt of the write command, issue a snoop to each of a plurality of other coherent caches for which it must be determined if there is a hit.

Apparatuses and methods for a processor architecture

In one embodiment, Quality of Service (QoS) criteria based server side binary translation and execution of applications is performed on multiple servers utilizing distributed translation and execution in either a virtualized or native execution environment. The translated applications are executed to generate output display data, the output display data is encoded in a media format suitable for video streaming, and the video stream is delivered over a network to a client device. In one embodiment, one or more graphics processors assist the central processors of the servers by accelerating the rendering of the application output, and a media encoder encodes the application output into a media format.

QoS based binary translation and application streaming

Zeroing a cache line

Maximum throughput or &ldquo;back-to-back&rdquo; scheduling of dependent instructions in a pipelined processor is achieved by maximizing the efficiency in which the processor determines the availability of the source operands of a dependent instruction and provides those operands to an execution unit executing the dependent instruction. These two operations are implemented through a number of mechanisms. One mechanism for determining the availability of source operands, and hence the readiness of a dependent instruction for dispatch to an available execution unit, relies on the early setting of a source valid bit during allocation when a source operand is a retired or immediate value. This allows the ready logic of a reservation station to begin scheduling the instruction for dispatch.

Method and apparatus for pipeline streamlining where resources are immediate or certainly retired

A microprocessor for providing an extended linear address of more than 32 bits. The extended linear address may be provided by concatenating a linear address with a segment selector extension, or by concatenating the values from two registers. Hierarchical translation of a linear address to a physical address is performed in which the number of levels in the hierarchy depends upon whether the linear address is an extended linear address.

Linear address extension and mapping to physical memory using 4 and 8 byte page table entries in a 32-bit microprocessor

Maximum throughput or 'back-to-back' scheduling of dependent instructions in a pipelined processor is achieved by maximizing the efficiency in which the processor determines the availability of the source operands of a dependent instruction and provides those operands to an execution unit executing the dependent instruction. These two operations are implemented through number of mechanisms. One mechanism for determining the availability of source operands, and hence the readiness of a dependent instruction for dispatch to an available execution unit, relies on the prospective determination of the availability of a source operand before the operand itself is actually computed as a result of the execution of another instruction. Storage addresses of the source operands of an instruction are stored in a content addressable memory (CAM). Before an instruction is executed and its result data written back, the storage location address of the result is provided to the CAM and associatively compared with the source operand addresses stored therein. A CAM match and its accompanying match bit indicate that the result of the instruction to be executed will provide a source operand to the dependent instruction waiting in the reservation station. Using a bypass mechanism, if the operand is computed after dispatch of the dependent instruction, then the source operand is provided directly from the execution unit computing the source operand to a source operand input of the execution unit executing the dependent instruction.

Method and apparatus for maximum throughput scheduling of dependent

A processor is disclosed comprising a front end circuit that fetches a series of instructions according to a program sequence determined by at least one branch prediction, a register renaming circuit that allocates execution resources to each instruction, and an execution circuit that executes each instruction in the instruction stream. The execution circuit causes the front end circuit to refetch the series of instructions if a branch misprediction is detected. A stall signal disables the register renaming circuit until the execution circuit commits the branch result to an architectural state according to the program sequence.

Processor that redirects an instruction fetch pipeline immediately upon

A method and circuitry for coordinating exceptions in a processor. The processor generates a result data value and an exception data value for each instruction wherein the exception data value specifies whether the corresponding instruction causes an exception. The processor commits the result data values to an architectural state of the processor in the sequential program order, and fetches an exception handler to processes the exception if the exception is indicated by one of the exception data values. The processor fetches an asynchronous event handler to processes an asynchronous event if the asynchronous event is detected while the result data values are committed to the architectural state of the processor.

Exception handling in a processor that performs speculative out-of-order

A mechanism for efficiently overlapping multiple operand types is used in a microprocessor which includes a plurality of execution units and a mechanism to provide operations, which include one or more operands, to the plurality of execution units. Each of the plurality of execution units interprets the one or more operands as different types of operands, and the mechanism to provide operations overlaps the different types of operands.

Mechanism for efficiently overlapping multiple operand types in a

A Branch Target Buffer Circuit in a computer processor that predicts branch instructions with a stream of computer instructions is disclosed. The Branch Target Buffer Circuit uses a Branch Target Buffer Cache that stores branch information about previously executed branch instructions. The branch information stored in the Branch Target Buffer Cache is addressed by the last byte of each branch instruction. When an Instruction Fetch Unit in the computer processor fetches a block of instructions it sends the Branch Target Buffer Circuit an instruction pointer. Based on the instruction pointer, the Branch Target Buffer Circuit looks in the Branch Target Buffer Cache to see if any of the instructions in the block being fetched is a branch instruction. When the Branch Target Buffer Circuit finds an upcoming branch instruction in the Branch Target Buffer Cache, the Branch Target Buffer Circuit informs an Instruction Fetch Unit about the upcoming branch instruction.

Method and apparatus for implementing a set-associative branch target

A buffer is used to store information about the branch instructions within a pipelined microprocessor that can speculatively execute instructions. When a branch instruction in the microprocessor is decoded, the address of the instruction immediately following the branch instruction (the Next Linear Instruction Pointer or NLIP) and some processor state information is written into a Branch Instruction Pointer Table. The branch instruction then proceeds down the microprocessor pipeline. Eventually, the branch instruction is executed. The resolved branch outcome for the branch instruction is compared with a predicted branch outcome. If the branch prediction was correct, the microprocessor continues execution along the current path. However, if the branch prediction was wrong then the execution unit flushes the front-end microprocessor pipeline and restores the microprocessor state information that was stored in the Branch IP Table. If the branch was mispredicted as not taken, the execution unit instructs an Instruction Fetch Unit to resume execution at a final branch target address. Alternatively, if the branch was mispredicted as taken when the branch should not have been taken, the execution unit instructs the Instruction Fetch Unit to resume execution at the Next Linear Instruction Pointer (NLIP) address stored in the Branch IP Table.

Method and apparatus for a branch instruction pointer table

This invention overcomes the address size backward compatibility problem by first subtracting the segment base address from the linear destination address of a branch instruction to generate a virtual destination address. It is assumed that the branch instruction destination address is n bits long with m most significant bits. It is desired to provide backward compatibility in the n-bit processor for branch instruction code written for processors utilizing instruction address fields of size (n-m) bits. After obtaining the virtual address, if any of the m most significant bits are non-zero, then those m bits are set to zero to thereby generate a corrected virtual address. If such a compatibility correction is necessary, then a clear signal is asserted to flush all state of the processor that resulted from instructions being fetched after the branch instruction was fetched. The corrected virtual address is added back to the segment base address to generate a corrected linear address. The next instruction is fetched at the corrected linear address.

Method and apparatus for providing address-size backward compatibility

Method and apparatus for implementing a branch target buffer in CISC

Growing community of inventors

Beaverton, OR, United States of America

David B Papworth