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:
Oct. 13, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 11, 1997
Nadeem Malik, Austin, TX (US);
Alan Vicha Pita, Austin, TX (US);
Avijit Saha, Austin, TX (US);
Subhash Rasiklal Vohra, Round Rock, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and implementing system are provided in which specific byte requests made by a functional unit within a computer system effect the return of a word containing the requested byte to a register device within a CPU. The returned word is stored 'as is' and without alignment, together with mask and alignment data indicative of the location of the requested byte within the stored word. Alignment relative to the requested byte is thereafter accomplished using the mask and alignment data just before use of the requested byte by the functional unit. The alignment function is thereby accomplished outside of the processor critical path which obviates the typical memory-processor mismatch delay inherent in prior art data alignment networks and substantially shortens the critical path in the memory access stage of the processor's pipeline.