Cooperative thread array granularity context switch during trap handling

US10289418B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• NVIDIA Corporation · US

Inventors

• Gerald F. Luiz · Los Gatos, US
• Philip Alexander Cuadra · San Francisco, US
• Luke Durant · San Jose, US
• Shirish Gadre · Fremont, US
• Robert Ohannessian · Austin, US
• Lacky V. Shah · Los Altos, US
• Nicholas Wang · Saratoga, US
• Arthur Merlin Danskin · Los Angeles, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 27, 2012
• Grant date: May 14, 2019
• Expiry date: Nov 10, 2034

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F9/4812
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Techniques are provided for handling a trap encountered in a thread that is part of a thread array that is being executed in a plurality of execution units. In these techniques, a data structure with an identifier associated with the thread is updated to indicate that the trap occurred during the execution of the thread array. Also in these techniques, the execution units execute a trap handling routine that includes a context switch. The execution units perform this context switch for at least one of the execution units as part of the trap handling routine while allowing the remaining execution units to exit the trap handling routine before the context switch. One advantage of the disclosed techniques is that the trap handling routine operates efficiently in parallel processors.