Method and apparatus for aligning an instruction boundary in variable length macroinstructions with an instruction buffer
US5822555A · kind A · utility
15Cited by
10References
24Claims
0Family size
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 20, 1996 |
| Grant date | Oct 13, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 20, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/382
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A circuit and method for supplying and aligning a block of multiple variable length macro instructions to an instruction buffer. Only one cycle is required to align and rotate the block of instruction code. A last byte vector of the instruction code in the instruction buffer is scanned from the last byte in a direction from back to front, thereby saving time. Rotating begins immediately so that a next block of instruction code is available in a next cycle. The block is stored in the instruction buffer after all macroinstructions therein have been steered to the decoder.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.