Computer processor with two addressable memories and two stream registers and method of data streaming of ALU operation
US5958038A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 7, 1997 |
| Grant date | Sep 28, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 7, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3885
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A processor having a modified Harvard architecture having first and second memories, an address register file divided into first and second sets of registers, first and second stream registers, and a general purpose register file for performing data streaming. The first and second sets of registers respectively address the first and second memories which, in turn, load data into the first and second stream registers. An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) accepts the stream registers and general purpose registers as inputs. Stream instructions are encoded such that a single instruction specifies an ALU operation performed on selected ALU inputs and where to store the results of the ALU operation, loads new values into the stream registers, and updates the address registers. A stream instruction has three operand fields respectively specifying two operands for the next ALU operation and a location to store the result of the current ALU operation. The bits in the fields for specifying a stream register and addressing mode are positionally overlapped with the bits for specifying a particular general purpose register. This encoding allows a simple instruction decoding mechanism while enabling …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.