Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Other

David G Kyle

Sherman E Lee

Rodney W Schmidt

A system, computer program product and method for automatically restoring logon connectivity in a broadband network system. Upon establishing a connection between a client and Internet gateway (INTERNET GATEWAY), the status of the connection, i.e., connected or disconnected, may be checked by issuing a request to an INTERNET GATEWAY utilizing a protocol that is normally blocked when the client is disconnected. By issuing a request utilizing a protocol that is normally blocked when the client is disconnected, the status of the connection may be determined by whether the request may be serviced. If the request cannot be serviced, then a subsequent connection may be established automatically by terminating the logon procedure associated with the preceding connection, e.g., initial connection, and executing the logon procedure associated with the subsequent connection.

Determining logon status in a broadband network system and automatically restoring logon connectivity

A central processing unit (CPU) repeatedly interrupts execution of software to save the CPU state, i.e. contents of various storage elements internal to the CPU, until an error occurs during the execution. On occurrence of the error, the CPU once again saves state and only then passes control to a handler in the software for handling the error. The state saving steps can be implemented in a computer process by use of a timer interrupt or by use of system management, or ICE breakpoint instructions that are included in the x86 instruction set. Errors can be debugged off-line in a development system, for example, by use of an in-circuit emulator to load the saved CPU states sequentially into the development system, thereby to recreate the error condition. Errors can also be debugged proactively, even before the error occurs, by use of a number of known-to-be-erroneous instructions and corresponding fix instructions. For proactive debugging, the CPU compares instructions to be executed with each of the known-to-be-erroneous instructions, and on finding a match, injects the corresponding fix instructions into the to-be-executed instructions. Therefore, known errors e.g. the PENTIUM arithmetic bug are avoided, e.g. by replacing one arithmetic instruction with another arithmetic instruction. Moreover, if an error has not yet been debugged, a temporary fix instruction can be used to gracefully terminate an application.

Method for identifying and correcting error in a central processing unit

A hardware accelerator for performing Winsock protocol acceleration uses hardware decoders each configured to perform decoding for a particular protocol interface. A protocol processor is connected to a data link library and accesses appropriate programs in the data link library to achieve the Winsock protocol acceleration.

Winsock-data link library transcoder

Method for identifying and correcting errors in a central processing unit

A data transfer system includes a first computer which is operative to generate a data package having a data portion and an instruction portion. A second computer receives the data package through a transport media. The second computer is responsive to the data package to process the data portion in accordance with the instruction portion.

Method of and apparatus for transferring and interpreting a data package

A central processing unit (hereinafter 'CPU') has a number of functional units and a tuning port for modifying one or more parameters of the functional units (hereinafter 'tunable units'). The combination (also called a 'tuning assembly') formed by a tuning port and the tunable units allows a CPU to be fine tuned, i.e. take on different configuration profiles (as defined by the tunable units' parameters) for efficiently executing different application programs. Therefore, a CPU that includes a tuning assembly as described herein can take on a first configuration profile capable of most efficiently executing a first application program such as a computer game, and can take on a second configuration profile capable of most efficiently executing a second application program such as a spreadsheet and so on. The CPU's configuration profile can be changed even during the execution of an application program by changing the tunable units' parameters. Such fine tuning allows the CPU to execute different portions of an application program more efficiently than possible in the prior art.

Port for fine tuning a central processing unit

A microprocessor with automatic and dynamic partname determination including performance number. The microprocessor includes circuitry that measures a core clock frequency for the microprocessor and circuitry that determines a performance indication for the microprocessor in response to the measured core clock frequency.

Microprocessor with automatic name generation including performance

A computer process transforms a 'general purpose' central processing unit (hereinafter 'CPU') into one of a number of possible 'special purpose' CPUs by changing operation of circuitry in the CPU. Changing operation of CPU circuitry as described herein 'fine tunes' behavior of the CPU, e.g. provides resources and environment most suitable for execution of a specific application program, or even a portion of an application program. The computer process performs the steps of: checking whether the CPU has a tunable unit, waiting for a triggering event indicating a need for fine tuning, reading one or more statistics on the performance of the CPU, comparing the read statistics with corresponding predetermined statistics, determining a multi-valued parameter signal depending on the comparison, driving the determined parameter signal to the tunable unit and changing operation of circuitry in the tunable unit depending on the received parameter signal, thereby to fine tune operation of the tunable unit and the CPU.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

David G Kyle