Intel Corporation

Warren R Morrow

Andrew F Glew

Dave B Minturn

Kris G Konigsfeld

Jeffrey M Abramson

Susan S Meredith

David L Chalupsky

Atiq A Bajwa

John L Baudrexl

William C Alexander, Iii

Wendell S Wenjen

A bus bridging method, a bus bridge and a bus agent are described. In a bus agent provides to a bus bridge a read data request targeting a data source bridged by the bus bridge. The read data request includes a read address indicating a starting storage location of the requested data, and a read size indicator indicating the size of the requested data. The bus bridge, in response, facilitates provision of the requested data to the bus agent. The facilitation includes streaming buffered ones of the requested data to the bus agent through one or more successive streaming connections to the bus bridge by the bus agent.

Bus bridging method and apparatus including use of read size indicators

A method is provided for recovering the effective address of memory instructions in an out-of-order microprocessor for use by an exception handler upon the occurrence of one of an exception and a systems management interrupt. The microprocessor comprises at least one execution unit for executing a plurality of instructions out-of-order and a re-order buffer having storage locations for buffering result data produced from the execution of the plurality of instructions. Each instruction is associated with a location designator to identify a unique storage location within the re-order buffer in which the result data for an executed instruction is written. The microprocessor further comprises a memory order buffer having storage locations for buffering memory instructions waiting for access to memory for execution, these storage locations also being identified by corresponding location designators. According to this embodiment of the microprocessor, the effective address of memory instructions can be reconstructed by utilizing the location designators of the ROB (Reorder Buffer) to find the corresponding storage location in the MOB (Memory Order Buffer) at which place the linear address for the instruction may be found. By associating both the retirement and exception information of the memory instructions stored within the storage locations of the re-order buffer with the corresponding memory instructions and information stored within the memory order buffer, the linear address of either the youngest, valid, retiring memory uop or the oldest, valid, excepted memory uop can be selected, written to memory and subsequently used to reconstruct the effective address of the memory instruction for use by an exception handler.

Method and apparatus for saving the effective address of floating point

A rounding mechanism and methodology, particularly useful for complex calculations involving multiple numeric operations (e.g., transcendentals) in which rounding performed on source operands, prior to their use in a current numeric operation, is used to determine the manner in which the result of the current numeric operation is rounded. Therefore, the result is rounded based on the rounding history of its source operands.

Method and apparatus for rounding operands using previous rounding

Growing community of inventors

Vancouver, WA, United States of America

Warren R Morrow