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. 18, 2005
Filed:
Jul. 25, 2002
James K. Pickett, Austin, TX (US);
James K. Pickett, Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A microcode instruction unit for a processor may include a microcode memory having entries for storing microcode instructions. A decoder for the microcode memory may decode microcode addresses to select entries of the microcode memory. A microcode entry point generator may receive complex instructions and provide a microcode entry point address to the decoder for each complex instruction. Each microcode entry point address may have a bit-width greater than needed to encode all the entries of the microcode memory. The microcode memory decoder may decode each microcode entry point address to select an entry in the microcode memory storing the beginning of a microcode routine to implement the corresponding complex instruction. The decoder may sparsely decode the microcode address range so that not all entries of said microcode memory are sequentially addressed.