Distributed free register tracking for register renaming using an availability tracking register associated with each stage of an execution pipeline
US5784589A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 27, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jul 21, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 27, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3875
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In a pipelined processor having at least one execution pipeline for executing instructions, the execution pipeline including ID (decode), AC (address calculation), and EX (execution) processing stages to process instructions for the processor, the processor including a register translation system that controls a renaming of physical registers of the processor to logical registers thereof, a tracking circuit that tracks availability of the physical registers for the renaming, method of operation thereof and processor containing the same. The tracking circuit includes: (1) ID, AC and EX tracking registers corresponding to the ID, AC and EX processing stages, each of the ID, AC and EX tracking registers containing tracking indicators corresponding to physical registers of the processor to be tracked, (2) read detection circuitry that changes a particular tracking indicator of a particular tracking register from a "not-read" state to a "read" state when an instruction being processed in a particular processing stage corresponding to the particular tracking register causes the particular processing stage to read a value from a particular physical register corresponding to the particular…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.