The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 17, 2020
Filed:
Feb. 27, 2019
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Christopher M. Tsay, Austin, TX (US);
Conrado Blasco, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Deepankar Duggal, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Richard F. Russo, San Jose, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed relating to speculative writes to special-purpose registers (SPRs). In some embodiments, the disclosed techniques may reduce or avoid system instruction stalls while waiting for SPR writes, which may improve processor performance. In some embodiments, a processor includes a first storage element configured to store a non-speculative value of a special-purpose register and speculative storage circuitry configured to store one or more speculative values of the special-purpose register based on one or more speculatively-performed writes to the special-purpose register. In some embodiments, the processor includes control circuitry configured to: propagate the non-speculative value of the special-purpose register to control other circuitry and provide a youngest speculative value of the special-purpose register in the speculative storage circuitry as a speculative read of the special-purpose register.