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:
Feb. 23, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 20, 1997
Rammohan Narayan, Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., , US;
Abstract
An instruction scanning unit for a superscalar microprocessor is disclosed. The instruction scanning unit processes start and end byte information associated with a plurality of contiguous instruction bytes. The processing of start byte information and end byte information is performed independently and in parallel, and the instruction scanning unit produces a plurality of scan values which identify valid instructions within the plurality of contiguous instruction bytes. Additionally, the instruction scanning unit is scalable. Multiple instruction scanning units may be operated in parallel to process a larger plurality of contiguous instruction bytes. Furthermore, the instruction scanning unit detects certain error conditions. Error information may be used by external logic to determine the proper course of action in light of the detected error.