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. 29, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 17, 1997
Osamu Nishii, Inagi, JP;
Sadaki Nakano, Kunitachi, JP;
Norio Nakagawa, Tokyo, JP;
Takanobu Tsunoda, Kokubunji, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The data processor includes a CPU and an instruction prefetch buffer that prefetches an instruction executed by the CPU and stores it therein. The CPU contains a detection circuit for detecting whether or not a displacement from a branch instruction to a branch target instruction is a specific displacement on the basis of branch displacement information that the concerned branch instruction holds. The instruction prefetch buffer clears an instruction already prefetched when the detection circuit detects that the displacement is not the specific displacement and outputs a branch target instruction newly fetched to the CPU, and outputs a branch target instruction already prefetched to the CPU when the detection circuit detects that the displacement is the specific displacement. Thus, the date processor fetches a branch target instruction within a certain range from the instruction prefetch buffer at a high speed without adding the nullifying bit on the instruction code.