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:
Nov. 27, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1998
Paul Geoffrey Lowney, Concord, MA (US);
David William Goodwin, Waltham, MA (US);
Robert Cohn, Salem, NH (US);
Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A method for permitting software optimization tools, software instrumenting tools and other analysis tools to re-write executables having mixed instructions and data uses a data structure having an entry for each multi-bit word in an executable file. Each entry of the data structure includes a number of flags that are set to identify the type of the multi-bit word in the associated line of the executable file. The types include instruction, data and unclassified. Each entry also includes a flag that indicates that the multi-bit word should not be optimized and a flag indicating that the multi-bit word is a problem branch. The no-optimize and problem branch flags may be used to identify multi-bit words that may be either branch instructions or data, and to ensure that such multi-bit words are not affected by optimization or other rewriting of the executable. In addition, a problem fall through flag is provided to maintain program flow for possible fall through code segments.