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:
Oct. 07, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 30, 1999
XingYu Jiang, San Jose, CA (US);
Ying-wai Ho, Los Altos, CA (US);
John L. Kelley, San Francisco, CA (US);
MIPS Technologies, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus predict whether an overflow or underflow floating-point exception could occur as a result of a data processing system performing a particular floating-point operation. Predictions are made based on at least one overflow threshold value, at least first and second underflow threshold values, and a preliminary result exponent value derived from the values of the exponents of the floating-point numbers that are about to be acted upon. The preliminary result exponent is compared to an overflow or underflow threshold value in order to predict whether there is a possibility that an overflow or underflow floating-point exception could occur. Overflow and underflow exceptions are predicted and an exception prediction signal is generated. The exception prediction signals that are generated may be used by data processing system control units, for example, to temporarily halt any parallel processing operations that may be affected by an overflow or underflow floating-point exception.