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:
Jun. 03, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 28, 1994
Applicant:
Inventors:
James A Stone, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Andre E Wolper, Portland, OR (US);
Assignee:
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
395456 ; 395478 ; 395872 ; 395873 ; 3642405 ; 364243 ; 3642434 ; 36424341 ; 364244 ; 3642441 ; 364246 ; 3642462 ; 364247 ; 364267 ; 364D / ;
Abstract
A programmable high watermark for a stack frame cache for eliminating frame spills initiated by certain critical events. A stack frame cache in a microprocessor is divided into two regions. The second region in the stack frame cache is reserved for context switches initiated by high priority events. Low priority events will result in a frame spill when the first region of the stack frame cache is filled. A high priority event will utilize the second region of the stack frame cache for a context switch if the first region is filled, thus eliminating the need for a reference to off-chip main memory.