Mips Technologies, Inc.

Hartvig W J Ekner

Kevin D Kissell

Morten Stribaek

Jakob Schou Jensen

Soeren R F Laursen

A method and apparatus provide means for saving and restoring processor register values and allocating and deallocating stack memory. A first field of a save instruction encodes whether a value in a register of a processor is saved as a static value. A second field of the save instruction encodes whether a value in a register of a processor is saved as an argument value. A third field of the save instruction encodes a size of a stack frame created during execution of the save instruction. An argument value is saved in a calling program's stack frame. A static value is saved in a called program's stack frame. A restore instruction is used to restore static values and deallocate the stack frame. The save and restore instructions may be executed using any programmable device, including a single instruction set architecture processor or a multi-instruction set architecture processor.

Instruction encoding to indicate whether to store argument registers as static registers and return address in subroutine stack

A multiply unit includes support for arithmetic operations, binary polynomial operations, and permutations. To this end, the multiply unit may include an input data path that receives input operands, an arithmetic multiplier connected to receive the input operands, a binary polynomial multiplier having components separate and distinct from the arithmetic multiplier and connected to receive the one or more input operands, and a multiply unit output data path connected to receive an output of the arithmetic multiplier and connected to receive an output of the binary polynomial multiplier. The multiply unit also may include permutation logic that performs permutation operations on the input operands.

Binary polynomial multiplier

Provided is a method and system for encoding an instruction to restore processor core register values. The method includes encoding in a first field of the instruction whether a first value, in a stack memory location having an address value equal to A plus a second value in a second register, is to be restored to a first register. A third value is encoded in a second field of the instruction for adjusting the second value in the second register.

Restoring register values from stack memory using instruction with restore indication bit and de-allocation frame size stack pointer offset

Partial bitwise permutation instructions are provided in a microprocessor or microcontroller. Partial bitwise permutations may be specified by one or more of the following: a destination specifier, a previous partial value source, a destination subset specifier, and a control specifier.

Partial bitwise permutations

A method and apparatus provide means for saving and restoring processor register values and allocating and deallocating stack memory. A first field of a save instruction encodes whether a value in a register of a processor is saved as an argument value or a static value. A second field of the save instruction encodes a size of a stack frame created during execution of the save instruction. An argument value is saved in a calling program's stack frame. A static value is saved in a called program's stack frame. A restore instruction is used to restore static values and deallocate the stack frame. The save and restore instructions may be executed using any programmable device, including a single instruction set architecture processor or a multi-instruction set architecture processor.

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Ballerup, Denmark

Hartvig W J Ekner