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:
May. 21, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 30, 1998
Judge K. Arora, Cupertino, CA (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for changing privilege level in a processor configured to pipeline instructions are presented. The processor includes a first memory storing an architectural privilege level that is set at a first privilege level, a second memory storing a plurality of instructions, and a pipeline including a plurality of processing stages. A first instruction is fetched from the memory and a determination is made whether the first instruction requires the first privilege level be changed to a second privilege level, and in response thereto, any subsequent instructions are flushed from the pipeline before recording the second privilege level in the first memory.