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:
Dec. 10, 2002
Filed:
May. 21, 1999
Preston J. Renstrom, Bloomington, MN (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for performing floating-point operations. The apparatus of the present invention comprises a floating point unit which comprises standard multiply accumulate units (MACs) which are capable of performing multiply accumulate operations on a plurality of data type formats. The standard MACs are configured to operate on traditional data type formats and on single instruction multiple data (SIMD) type formats. Therefore, dedicated SIMD MAC units are not needed, thus allowing a significant savings in die area to be realized. When a SIMD instruction is to be operated on by one of the MAC units, the data is presented to the upper and lower MAC units as 64-bit words. Each MAC unit also receives one or more bits which cause the MAC units to each select either the upper or lower halves of the 64-bit words. Each MAC unit then operates on its respective 32-bit words. The results of the operations performed by the MAC units are then coalesced by the bypass blocks of the floating-point unit into a 64-bit word. The results are coalesced in such a manner that the results appear identical to the results obtained in floating-point units which utilize dedicated SIMD hardware.