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:
Jan. 26, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 11, 1996
Glenn Henry, Austin, TX (US);
Terry Parks, Austin, TX (US);
Integrated Device Technology, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for improving descriptor load time in a microprocessor are provided. The method and apparatus provide an instruction sequence which loads a selector, forwards a table index (TI) bit retrieved from the selector for use by the next instruction which loads the descriptor. Forwarding of the table index bit to a register file selects between a global descriptor table and a local descriptor table for loading the descriptor, without intervening instructions or clock cycles. The forwarded table index selectively addresses either the global descriptor table or the local descriptor table only when a descriptor load instruction is immediately preceded by a selector load instruction.