Processor transparent on-the-fly instruction stream decompression
US6199126A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 23, 1997 |
| Grant date | Mar 6, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 23, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3877
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus and method for transparent on-the-fly decompression of the program instruction stream of a processor. Connected between a processor and a memory storing compressed information is a decompression device. The decompression device, receives a request from the processor for information, retrieves compressed information from the memory, decompresses the retrieved compressed information to form uncompressed information, and transmits the uncompressed information to the processor. The compressed information may include both program instructions and data. When the decompression device receives a request for information, which includes an unmodified address, from the processor, it generates an index offset from the received unmodified address. An indexed address corresponding to the generated index offset is retrieved from an index table. Compressed information corresponding to the selected indexed address is retrieved from the memory and transmitted to the processor.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.