Chips and Technologies, Llc.

Jimmy E Bracking

James S Blomgren

David E Richter

Francis Spahn

The present invention provides a microprocessor with a special Operation Capture Facility (OCF) mechanism which enables 'faulting' whenever there is (a) a memory access request to any one of a specified plurality of blocks of memory (b) a request to access any one of a plurality of specified I-O ports or (c) any one of a specified plurality of interrupts is activated. This OCF mechanism includes a plurality of special registers which store either (a) an I-O port address, (b) a memory address or (c) an interrupt number. Mask registers are provided which (1) mask bits in the special register, thereby providing the ability to fault on an entire block of I-O access requests or upon activation of any one of a block of interrupts and (2) indicate which type of interrupts should be faulted and to indicate whether I-O should be faulted on a byte, word or double word.

Microprocessor with operation capture facility

The present invention provides a microprocessor with a special OEM mode of operation that can be used by an OEM system integrator to implement special tasks such as power management. The OEM mode provided by the present invention is designed for use by a system integrator who integrates a microprocessor into a larger system such as a personal computer. The OEM mode of operation provided by this invention adds features to the overall system; however, it is transparent to system programmers. The system integrator can use the OEM mode to configure a system so that the system has certain special power management features, which can not be accessed by programmers who use the system. The OEM mode provided by the present invention is accessed by a signal on a special I-O pin. For example, an external timer can periodically provide signals to this special pin, thereby periodically interrupting the microprocessor and putting the microprocessor in the OEM mode. Special power management code stored in an external ROM can be executed each time the microprocessor is placed in OEM mode. At the end of the operations performed in OEM mode, the microprocessor is restored to the state where the OEM mode of operation began.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Jimmy E Bracking