Seiko Epson Corporation

Other

Transmeta Corporation

S-mos Systems, Inc.

Yoshiyuki Miyayama

Johannes Wang

Le Trong Nguyen

Sanjiv Garg

Derek J Lentz

Yasuaki Hagiwara

Quang H Trang

Te-Li Lau

Sze-Shun Wang

Brett Coon

Makoto Kudo

Satoshi Kubota

Yoichi Hijikata

Cheryl Senter Brashears

Le-Trong Nguyen

Cheng-Long Tang

Cheryl D Senter

Yasuhiro Oguchi

Hisao Sato

Hirofumi Terasawa

Jun Nakamura

Akira Nakada

Shoichiro Kasahara

The present invention provides a system and method for managing load and store operations necessary for reading from and writing to memory or I/O in a superscalar RISC architecture environment. To perform this task, a load store unit is provided whose main purpose is to make load requests out of order whenever possible to get the load data back for use by an instruction execution unit as quickly as possible. A load operation can only be performed out of order if there are no address collisions and no write pendings. An address collision occurs when a read is requested at a memory location where an older instruction will be writing. Write pending refers to the case where an older instruction requests a store operation, but the store address has not yet been calculated. The data cache unit returns 8 bytes of unaligned data. The load/store unit aligns this data properly before it is returned to the instruction execution unit. Thus, the three main tasks of the load store unit are: (1) handling out of order cache requests; (2) detecting address collisions; and (3) alignment of data.

System and method for handling load and/or store operations in a superscalar microprocessor

The high-performance, RISC core based microprocessor architecture includes an instruction fetch unit for fetching instruction sets from an instruction store and an execution unit that implements the concurrent execution of a plurality of instructions through a parallel array of functional units. The fetch unit generally maintains a predetermined number of instructions in an instruction buffer. The execution unit includes an instruction selection unit, coupled to the instruction buffer, for selecting instructions for execution, and a plurality of functional units for performing instruction specified functional operations. A unified instruction scheduler, within the instruction selection unit, initiates the processing of instructions through the functional units when instructions are determined to be available for execution and for which at least one of the functional units implementing a necessary computational function is available. Unified scheduling is performed across multiple execution data paths, where each execution data path, and corresponding functional units, is generally optimized for the type of computational function that is to be performed on the data: integer, floating point, and boolean. The number, type and computational specifics of the functional units provided in each data path, and as between data paths, are mutually independent.

High-performance superscalar-based computer system with out-of order instruction execution and concurrent results distribution

A high-performance, superscalar-based computer system with out-of-order instruction execution for enhanced resource utilization and performance throughput. The computer system fetches a plurality of fixed length instructions with a specified, sequential program order (in-order). The computer system includes an instruction execution unit including a register file, a plurality of functional units, and an instruction control unit for examining the instructions and scheduling the instructions for out-of-order execution by the functional units. The register file includes a set of temporary data registers that are utilized by the instruction execution control unit to receive data results generated by the functional units. The data results of each executed instruction are stored in the temporary data registers until all prior instructions have been executed, thereby retiring the executed instruction in-order.

High-performance, superscalar-based computer system with out-of-order instruction execution

A system and method for extracting complex, variable length computer instructions from a stream of complex instructions each subdivided into a variable number of instructions bytes, and aligning instruction bytes of individual ones of the complex instructions. The system receives a portion of the stream of complex instructions and extracts a first set of instruction bytes starting with the first instruction bytes, using an extract shifter. The set of instruction bytes are then passed to an align latch where they are aligned and output to a next instruction detector. The next instruction detector determines the end of the first instruction based on said set of instruction bytes. An extract shifter is used to extract and provide the next set of instruction bytes to an align shifter which aligns and outputs the next instruction. The process is then repeated for the remaining instruction bytes in the stream of complex instructions. The isolated complex instructions are decoded into nano-instructions which are processed by a RISC processor core.

System and method for translating non-native instructions to native instructions for processing on a host processor

High-performance superscalar-based computer system with out-of-order instruction execution and concurrent results distribution

The present invention provides a microcomputer that makes it possible to implement a real-time trace on a mass-produced chip using few terminals, acquire trace information from within a specified range, and measure execution times, together with electronic equipment and a debugging system comprising this microcomputer. A trace information output section () outputs trace information for implementing a real-time trace, to four dedicated terminals. It outputs instruction execution status information (DST[2:0]) of the CPU to three terminals and the PC value (DPCO) of a branch destination when an PC absolute branch has occurred, serially to one terminal. A microcomputer () outputs information indicating the start and end of a trace range or execution-time measurement range to DST[] in a predetermined sequence. A debugging tool () determines the start and end of the trace range or execution-time measurement range from the values in DST[

Microcomputer, electronic equipment, and debugging system

High-performance, superscalar-based computer system with out-of-order instruction execution and concurrent results distribution

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Yoshiyuki Miyayama