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:
Mar. 21, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 18, 1997
Thomas S Green, Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A microprocessor configured to predict the length of variable length instructions for decoding purposes by detecting patterns of instruction lengths that have been previously decoded. The microprocessor has a cache, an instruction length calculation unit, and a pattern detector. The instruction length calculation unit receives instruction bytes from the cache and generates an instruction length corresponding thereto. The pattern detector stores a plurality of instruction length sequences, each comprising an initial sequence and a final sequence. The pattern detector is configured to receive instruction lengths from the length calculation unit and compare them with the stored initial sequences. If the pattern detector finds a match, it outputs the corresponding final sequence for use as predicted instruction lengths. A method for using instruction length pattern detection for decoding is also disclosed.