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:
Nov. 02, 1998
Gerald D. Zuraski, Jr., Austin, TX (US);
Syed F. Ahmed, Austin, TX (US);
Paul K. Miller, McKinney, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A predecode unit is configured to predecode a fixed number of instruction bytes of variable length instructions per clock cycle. The predecode unit outputs predecode bits which identify the start byte of an instruction. An instruction alignment unit uses the start bits to dispatch the instructions to a plurality of decode units that form fixed issue positions. In one embodiment, the predecode unit identifies a plurality of length vectors. Each length vector is associated with one of the instruction bytes predecoded in a clock cycle and identifies the length of an instruction if an instruction starts at the instruction byte corresponding to the length vector. A tree circuit determines in which instruction bytes instructions start.