Patent · US Expired

File replication methods and apparatus for reducing port pressure in a clustered processor

US6230251A · kind A · utility

13Cited by
6References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 22, 1999
Grant dateMay 8, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 22, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/3885
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention provides techniques for reducing the port pressure of a clustered processor. In an illustrative embodiment, the processor includes multiple clusters of execution units, with each of the clusters having a portion of a register file and a portion of a predicate file associated therewith, such that a given cluster is permitted to write to and read from its associated portions of the register and predicate files. A replication technique in accordance with the invention reduces port pressure by replicating, e.g., a register lock file and a predicate lock file of the processor for each of the clusters. The replicated files vary depending upon whether the technique is implemented with a write-only interconnection or a read-only interconnection.

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