Patent · US Expired

Apparatus for determining the instantaneous average number of instructions processed

US6175814A · kind A · utility

19Cited by
51References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 26, 1997
Grant dateJan 16, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 26, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2201/885
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus is provided for determining an average number of instructions entering a stage of a processor pipeline of a computer system during a clock cycle of a processor clock. The number of instructions entering a particular stage of the pipeline are stored in a queue during each of a predetermined number (N) of clock cycles. The total number of instructions processed over the last P clock cycles is computed, where P is less than or equal to N. The total number of instructions processed is divided by the last P processor cycles to yield the instantaneous average number of instructions processed for each processor cycle. This average number of instructions processed is communicated to software.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.