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. 09, 2010
Filed:
May. 30, 2008
Wallace P. Montgomery, Austin, TX (US);
David F. Tobias, Pflugerville, TX (US);
Michael T. Clark, Austin, TX (US);
Wallace P. Montgomery, Austin, TX (US);
David F. Tobias, Pflugerville, TX (US);
Michael T. Clark, Austin, TX (US);
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc., Grand Cayman, KY;
Abstract
A processor receives a command via a sideband interface on the processor to read processor state information, e.g., CPUID information. The sideband interface provides the command information to a microcode engine in the processor that executes the command to retrieve the designated processor state information at an appropriate instruction boundary and retrieves the processor state information. That processor information is stored in local buffers in the sideband interface to avoid modifying processor state. After the microcode engine completes retrieval of the information and the sideband interface command is complete, execution returns to the normal flow in the processor. Thus, the processor state information may be obtained non-destructively during processor runtime.