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:
Jul. 10, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 01, 1995
Joseph R. Eykholt, Los Altos, CA (US);
Steven R. Kleiman, Los Altos, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for bypassing multiple pre-tests and post-tests during a system call when those tests are known to be inapplicable. One or more slow path flags are checked during a system call or TRAP. If the slow path flag is clear, execution follows a fast instruction path, resulting in faster execution for the system call or TRAP. Otherwise execution follows a slow instruction path. The slow path flags are set, cleared, and checked at appropriate times. The invention improves the execution time of a thread in a software process and may be used in a data processing system employing multiple threads. Each thread in the data processing system has its own set of slow path flags. The invention can set, clear and check the slow path flags of each thread independently, in subsets of threads, or in all threads.