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:
May. 10, 2011
Filed:
Dec. 31, 2007
David C. Holloway, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Michael D. Snyder, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Suresh Venkumahanti, Austin, TX (US);
David C. Holloway, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Michael D. Snyder, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Suresh Venkumahanti, Austin, TX (US);
Freescale Semicondoctor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A thread switch mechanism and technique for a microprocessor is disclosed wherein a processing of a first thread is completed, and a continuation of a second thread is initiated during completion of the first thread. In one form, the technique includes processing a first thread at a pipeline of a processing device, and initiating processing of a second thread at a front end of the pipeline in response to an occurrence of a context switch event. The technique can also include initiating a instruction progress metric in response the context switch event. The technique can further include enabling completion of processing of instructions of the first thread that are at a back end of the pipeline at the occurrence of the context switch event until an expiry of the instruction progress metric.