Apparatus and method for single precision multiplication
US6226737A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 15, 1998 |
| Grant date | May 1, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 15, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2207/382
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus and method for performing single precision multiplication in a microprocessor are provided. The apparatus includes translation logic and extended precision floating point execution logic. The translation logic decodes a single precision multiply instruction into an associated micro instruction sequence directing the microprocessor to fetch a single precision operand from memory and convert it to extended precision format. In addition, the associated micro instruction sequence directs floating point execution logic employing a dual pass multiplication unit to skip a pass associated with computing an insignificant partial product. This insignificant partial product would otherwise result from multiplication of a multiplicand by zeros which are appended to the significand of the fetched operand when it is converted to extended precision format.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.