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.

Date of Patent:
Mar. 06, 2018

Filed:

Jun. 15, 2016
Applicant:

Imagination Technologies Limited, Kings Langley, GB;

Inventors:

Hugh Jackson, Sydney, AU;

Anand Khot, Kings Langley, GB;

Assignee:

MIPS Tech, LLC, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 9/30 (2006.01); G06F 9/38 (2006.01); G06F 12/0842 (2016.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 9/30043 (2013.01); G06F 9/30145 (2013.01); G06F 9/3834 (2013.01); G06F 9/3836 (2013.01); G06F 9/3842 (2013.01); G06F 12/0842 (2013.01);
Abstract

A method and load and store buffer for issuing a load instruction to a data cache. The method includes determining whether there are any unresolved store instructions in the store buffer that are older than the load instruction. If there is at least one unresolved store instruction in the store buffer older than the load instruction, it is determined whether the oldest unresolved store instruction in the store buffer is within a speculation window for the load instruction. If the oldest unresolved store instruction is within the speculation window for the load instruction, the load instruction is speculatively issued to the data cache. Otherwise, the load instruction is stalled until any unresolved store instructions outside the speculation window are resolved. The speculation window is a short window that defines a number of instructions or store instructions that immediately precede the load instruction.


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