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:
Jul. 05, 2005
Filed:
Jul. 20, 2001
Gyle D. Yearsley, Boise, ID (US);
William J. Tiffany, Boise, ID (US);
Lloyd A. Hasley, Austin, TX (US);
Gyle D. Yearsley, Boise, ID (US);
William J. Tiffany, Boise, ID (US);
Lloyd A. Hasley, Austin, TX (US);
ZiLOG, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A single shared processing path is used as contexts are switched during processing. Each unique context is processed using a corresponding unique pipeline. If a pipeline that is executing under one context stalls, processing is switched in the shared processing path to another pipeline that is executing under second context. New pipelines are enabled for execution by borrowing a clock cycle from the currently executing pipeline. In some cases contexts are assigned various relative priority levels. In one case a context switching microprocessor is used in a communication engine portion of a system-on-a-chip communication system.