Processing commands and data in a common pipeline path in a high-speed

Abstract

A pipelined processing system in which context switching for each of the pipelined processing circuits within the pipeline may be accomplished without flushing the data from the pipeline. This is accomplished by sending the pipeline commands and data together through the pipeline and differentiating the commands from the data using a flag added to the commands and data which specifies whether the associated data word is a command or data. During operation of the pipeline, when the input data is received by one of the pipelined processing circuits in the pipeline, the flag is checked to see if the associated data word includes a command. If the associated data word includes data to be processed, it is processed in accordance with the current configuration of the pipeline. However, if the associated data word includes a command for setup and control and the like, each pipelined processing circuit within the pipeline compares its identification value with a tag field in the command to determine whether it is to be reconfigured by that command. If it is to be reconfigured by that command, the appropriate context switching and the like takes place. However, if the current pipelined processing circuit is not to be reconfigured by that command, that command is passed through the current pipelined processing circuit unprocessed so that a similar determination may be made by the next pipelined processing circuit in the pipeline. As a result, setup and control commands for the pipelined processing circuits may be passed through the data processing pipeline along with the data in the desired processing order such that a pipeline data flush is not necessary between reconfigurations of the pipelined processing circuits. Since the pipeline need not be flushed when processes are changed, processing efficiency and throughput are substantially improved.