Oracle America, Inc.

Mips Technologies, Inc.

Ivan Pavle Radivojevic

John Gregory Favor

Joseph Byron Rowlands

Richard Win Thaik

Matthew Ashcraft

Christopher Patrick Nelson

Leonard Eric Shar

Per Forssell

Inder Bhasin

A method and apparatus for optimizing a sequence of operations adapted for execution by a processor is disclosed to include associating with each register a symbolic expression selected from a set of possible symbolic expressions, locating an operation, if any, that is next within the sequence of operations and setting that operation to be a working operation, where the working operation has associated therewith a destination register and zero or more source registers, and processing the working operation when the working operation and any symbolic expressions of its source registers, if any, match at least one of a set of rules, where each rule specifies that the working operation must match a subset of the operation set, where each rule also specifies that the symbolic expressions, if any, of any source registers of the working operation must match a subset of the possible symbolic expressions, and where the rule also specifies a result, then posting the result as the symbolic expression of the destination register.

Symbolic renaming optimization of a trace

An instruction processing circuit includes a decoder circuit operable to receive a sequence of instructions and to decode the received sequence of instructions into a first type of sequence of operations, and a trace builder circuit operable to receive at least a portion of the sequence of operations of the first type and to generate, based thereon, a second type of sequence of operations, where the at least a portion of the sequence of operations of the first type represents a first portion of the sequence of instructions, where the first portion of the sequence of instructions includes at most one conditional control transfer instruction that, when present, ends the first portion of the sequence of instructions, and where the sequence of operations of the second type also represents the first portion of the sequence of instructions.

Trace unit

A method and apparatus for optimizing a sequence of operations adapted for execution by a processor is disclosed to include associating a symbolic expression with each of at least a subset of the registers, holding a set of dependency indications that specify for each particular symbolic expression which, if any, of the other symbolic expressions must be emitted as operations prior to emitting the particular symbolic expression, locating an operation, if any, that is next within the sequence of operations and setting that operation to be a working operation and processing the working operation. Processing is performed by handling the working operation by a combination of updating zero or more of the symbolic expressions and emitting zero or more of the symbolic expressions as operations, identifying which, if any, of the symbolic expressions that were updated in process were updated such that they must be emitted prior to which other, if any, of the symbolic expressions, and then updating the dependency indicators to include any such dependencies, and identifying which, if any, of the symbolic expressions that were updated in process were updated such that they no longer need to be emitted prior to which other, if any, of the symbolic expressions, and then updating the dependency indicators to remove any such dependencies.

Emit vector optimization of a trace

A method and apparatus for optimizing a sequence of operations adapted for execution by a processor is disclosed to include locating an operation, if any, that is next within the sequence of operations and setting a current operation to be that operation. The current operation is processed as follows: a) de-activating, if not already de-activated, a consumed indicator associated with the current operation; and b) when the current operation is of the producer type, then activating, if not already activated, a producer indicator associated with the current operation, and locating a first set of operations, if any, that i) are earlier in the sequence of operations than the current operation, ii) have their associated producer indicator activated, and iii) have their associated consumed indicator de-activated, and then de-activating the producer indicator associated with each operation in the first set. When the current operation is of the consumer type, then locating a second set of operations, if any, that are earlier in the sequence of operations than the current operation, and then activating, if not already activated, the consumed indicator associated with each operation in the second set.

Flag optimization of a trace

A method, apparatus, and manufacture to facilitate power-efficient register file access for preparing a register file to be accessed. Efficient operation of a processor is facilitated while still conserving power. Register information can be decoded during the first phase of a clock to make a determination as to which register within a register file should be accessed. Furthermore, a determination can be made using logic modules as to whether the register information will actually be required by an execution unit during a second phase of the clock. Upon a determination that the register should be enabled, the register is enabled to allow the contents of the register to be output. In this fashion, power can be conserved when it is determined that the information stored by a register file is not required. Such a determination might be made, for example, when it is learned that the information in the register should be bypassed as invalid or an exception occurs cancelling the instruction.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Ivan Pavle Radivojevic