Method and apparatus for implementing floating point projection instructions
US6049865A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 18, 1997 |
| Grant date | Apr 11, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 18, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2207/3808
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A floating point unit (60) capable of executing projection instructions provides performance improvement in multiple precision floating point arithmetic. The projection instructions provide for obtaining partial sequences of numbers, products, and sums which have definite alignments and widths which a programmer can set. This allows very fast computation of both individual intermediate computations and final results. A range projection instruction (210, 410) builds a mask with an exponent from one source (230, 430) and a mantissa from another (240, 440). A project instruction (610) builds a result by masking (660) mantissa bits in a source operand after alignment (630) with a mask. Projection multiply (810), add (1000), and subtract instructions build results by masking (850, 1070) mantissa bits of unrounded partial results after alignment (830, 1020, 1040) with a mask.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.