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. 28, 1991
Filed:
Jul. 20, 1988
Applicant:
Inventors:
William R Wheeler, Hudson, MA (US);
George M Uhler, Marlborough, MA (US);
Assignee:
Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
364200 ; 364263 ; 3642318 ; 3642624 ; 3642715 ;
Abstract
Bubble compression in a pipelined central processing unit (CPU) of a computer system is provided. A bubble represents a stage in the pipeline that cannot perform any useful work due to the lack of data from an earlier pipeline stage. When a particular pipeline stage has stalled, the CPU instructions that have already passed through the stage continue to move ahead and leave behind vacant stages or bubbles. If a bubble is introduced into a pipeline and the pipeline subsequently stalls, the disclosed CPU takes advantage of this stalled condition to compress the previously introduced bubble.