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. 23, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 31, 2001
Cathy May, Millwood, NY (US);
Edward John Silha, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method, program, and system for modifying computer program instructions during execution of those instructions are provided. The invention comprises writing a first instruction into a memory location, wherein the instruction is a patch class instruction. This first instruction is then fetched from the memory location and executed. Concurrent with execution of the first instruction, the memory location is overwritten with a second instruction, which is also a patch class instruction. Because the first and second instructions are patch class instructions, if a program is executing from the memory location, or returns to execute from that location, it will fetch and execute either the first instruction or the second instruction. In one embodiment, reconciling the processor's execution pipeline with the memory location will ensure that the second instruction is fetched and executed if the program returns to execute from that location.