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:
Aug. 10, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 21, 1997
Peter James Aldworth, Cambridge, GB;
Arm Limited, Cambridge, GB;
Abstract
The present invention provides a data processing circuit and method for performing arithmetic processing on data signals input to the circuit, comprising: a plurality of input terminals for receiving a plurality of data signals to be processed; a plurality of interconnected arithmetic processing units, one corresponding to each input terminal, for processing the data signals received at the corresponding input terminal; and a selector for routing the data signals at said input terminals to the corresponding arithmetic processing units in a first mode of operation, or for routing a selected one of said data signals to said plurality of arithmetic processing units in a second mode of operation; whereby, in said first mode of operation, data signals arriving at said input terminals are processed in parallel by said corresponding arithmetic processing units, and, in said second mode of operation, at any point in time, one of said data signals is processed by said plurality of arithmetic processing units. By this approach, the data processing circuit is provided with two modes of operation, the first mode of operation corresponding to a fast, reduced precision mode of operation, whilst the second mode of operation corresponds to a slower but higher precision mode of operation. The same hardware is reused for both modes of operation, thereby reducing the hardware requirements and so enabling the circuit to be relatively small.