Mips Technologies, Inc.

Nandakumar Sampath

Stephen Melvin

Mario D Nemirovsky

Enrique Musoll

Adolfo M Nemirovsky

Narendra Sankar

Enric Musoll

Hector Urdaneta

Aldofo Nemirovsky

In a data-packet processor, a configurable queuing system for packet accounting during processing has a plurality of queues arranged in one or more clusters, an identification mechanism for creating a packet identifier for arriving packets, insertion logic for inserting packet identifiers into queues and for determining into which queue to insert a packet identifier, and selection logic for selecting packet identifiers from queues to initiate processing of identified packets, downloading of completed packets, or for requeuing of the selected packet identifiers.

Queueing system for processors in packet routing operations

In a data-packet processor, a configurable queueing system for packet accounting during processing has a plurality of queues arranged in one or more clusters, an identification mechanism for creating a packet identifier for arriving packets, insertion logic for inserting packet identifiers into queues and for determining into which queue to insert a packet identifier, and selection logic for selecting packet identifiers from queues to initiate processing of identified packets, downloading of completed packets, or for requeueing of the selected packet identifiers.

A system is provided for enabling a non-speculative pre-fetch operation for processing instructions to be performed in the background ahead of immediate packet processing by a packet processor. The system comprises a packet-management unit for accepting data packets and enqueuing them for processing, a processor unit for processing the data packets, a processor core memory for holding context registers and functional units for processing, a memory for holding a plurality of instruction threads and a software-configurable hardware table for relating queues to pointers to beginnings of instruction threads. The packet-management unit selects an available context in the processor core for processing of a data packet, consults the table, and communicates the pointer to the processor, enabling the processor to perform the non-speculative pre-fetch for instructions.

Method and apparatus for non-speculative pre-fetch operation in data packet processing

A system is provided for enabling a non-speculative pre-fetch operation for processing instructions to be performed in the background ahead of immediate packet processing by a packet processor. The system comprises a packet-management unit for accepting data packets and en-queuing them for processing, a processor unit for processing the data packets, a processor core memory for holding context registers and functional units for processing, a memory for holding a plurality of instruction threads and a software-configurable hardware table for relating queues to pointers to beginnings of instruction threads. The packet-management unit selects an available context in the processor core for processing of a data packet, consults the table, and communicates the pointer to the processor, enabling the processor to perform the non-speculative pre-fetch for instructions.

A pipelined multistreaming processor has an instruction source, a first cluster of a plurality of streams fetching instructions from the instruction source, a second cluster of a plurality of streams fetching instructions from the instruction source, dedicated instruction queues for individual streams in each cluster, a first dedicated dispatch stage in the first cluster for dispatching instructions to execution units, and a second dedicated dispatch stage in the second cluster for selecting and dispatching instructions to execution units. The processor is characterized in that the clusters operate independently, with the dedicated dispatch stage taking instructions only from the instruction queues in the individual clusters to which the dispatch stages are dedicated. In preferred embodiments there are dedicated fetch and dispatch stages for streams in the clusters, and dedicated execution units to which instructions may be dispatched.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Nandakumar Sampath