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:
Sep. 23, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 15, 2000
Charles Roberts Moore, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention is a mechanism for providing redundancy in the instruction buffer of a microprocessor such individual entries which test bad during manufacturing can be tolerated and the baseline specification of the microprocessor can be met. The present invention utilizes the instruction allocation logic of a microprocessor to allow additional buffer entries, above those called for in the specification to be provided. More particularly, each buffer entry is tested and the results are used to identify which individual entry or entries have a defective operational status. This information is then used to update the instruction allocation logic such that functional entries are considered for allocation, while those entries that test bad can be avoided. Further, the test status information can be used to set a “manufactured good” bit in the entry itself. This bit is then read ultimately by the allocation logic and instructions can be allocated accordingly, i.e. only to those entries which have tested good.