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:
May. 03, 1988
Filed:
May. 21, 1984
William F Bruckert, Hudson, MA (US);
Tryggve Fossum, Northboro, MA (US);
John A DeRosa, Jr, Princeton, MA (US);
Richard E Glackemeyer, Bolton, MA (US);
Allan E Helenius, Westford, MA (US);
John C Manton, Marlboro, MA (US);
Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA (US);
Abstract
A central processor unit for a digital data processing system that processes prefetched instructions including a conditional branch instruction. The processor includes a fetch unit that has separate portions, one that retrieves operands and the other that retrieves instructions. When the fetch unit fetches a conditional branch instruction, it may continue to prefetch 'branch not taken' instructions using the instruction fetch portion. The fetch unit initially uses the operand fetch portion to prefetch 'branch taken' instructions. If it is determined that the branch is not taken, the prefetch operation is aborted, otherwise the prefetch operation is allowed to continue to provide the next instruction used by the processor.