Method for parallel steering of fixed length fields containing a variable length instruction from an instruction buffer to parallel decoders
US5586277A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 7, 1995 |
| Grant date | Dec 17, 1996 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 7, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3822
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A circuit and method for simultaneously steering multiple aligned macroinstructions from an instruction buffer to a decoder that receives and decodes multiple macroinstructions in parallel. A first macroinstruction is supplied to a first decoder by steering a first predetermined number of bytes following the first buffer byte. A second macroinstruction is supplied by scanning a first opcode byte vector to locate a first opcode byte, and then steering a second predetermined number of bytes beginning at said first opcode to a second decoder. Operations to locate the first byte of each of the macroinstructions and to steer them to the decoders are accomplished in one cycle. If said macroinstruction cannot be decoded by said second decoder, then it is resteered to the first decoder. Steering and resteering operations continue until all complete macroinstructions within the instruction buffer have been accepted by the decoders.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.