International Business Machines Corporation

Michael T Huffer

Eric M Schwarz

Fadi Y Busaba

Lisa Cranton Heller

Lee Evan Eisen

Aaron Tsai

David S Hutton

John G Rell, Jr

Edward Thomas Malley

A method and apparatus for tracing instruction streams for a multi-threaded processor are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a last thread register configured to store a thread index that indicates a last executed thread, a tracing memory configured to store, within each of a plurality of storage locations, state information corresponding to a dispatch cycle for a multi-threaded processor, and a tracing control module configured to provide the state information to the tracing memory. The state information includes instruction information and a previous thread index. The state information may also include a flip bit that is used to determine a current insertion point within the tracing memory. A corresponding method is also disclosed herein.

Instruction stream tracing of multi-threaded processors

Embodiments include optimizing the grouping of instructions in a microprocessor. Aspects include receiving a first clump of instructions from a streaming buffer, pre-decoding each of instructions for select information and sending the instructions to an instruction queue. Aspects further include storing initial grouping information for the instructions in a local register, wherein the initial grouping information is based on the select information. Aspects further include updating the initial group information stored in the local register when additional pre-decode information becomes available and grouping the instructions that are ready to be dispatched into a dispatch group based on the grouping information stored in the local register. Aspects further include dispatching the dispatch group to an issue unit.

Optimizing grouping of instructions

A method and apparatus for tracing instruction streams for a multi-threaded processor are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a last thread register configured to store a thread index that indicates a last executed thread, a tracing memory configured to store, within each of a plurality of storage locations, state information corresponding to a dispatch cycle for a multi-threaded processor, and a tracing control module configured to provide the state information to the tracing memory. The state information includes instruction information and a previous thread index. The state information may also include a flip bit that is used to determine a current insertion point within the tracing memory.

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Walden, NY, United States of America

Michael T Huffer