Patent · US Expired

Duplicator interconnection methods and apparatus for reducing port pressure in a clustered processor

US6269437A · kind A · utility

7Cited by
3References
19Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 22, 1999
Grant dateJul 31, 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 duplicator interconnection technique in accordance with the invention reduces port pressure by providing one or more global move units in the processor. A given global move unit uses an inter-cluster move instruction to copy a value from a portion of the register or predicate file associated with a source cluster to another portion of the register or predicate file associated with a destination cluster.

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