Patent · US Expired

Programmable accelerator for a programmable processor system

US6397240B1 · kind B1 · utility

63Cited by
4References
61Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 18, 1999
Grant dateMay 28, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 18, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2207/3828
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A programmable multi-mode accelerator is disclosed for use with a programmable processor or microprocessor. The programmable multi-mode accelerator allows a programmable processor to execute specific algorithms, such as certain types of finite impulse response (FIR), correlation and Viterbi computations, that require low-precision operations at an extremely high rate. The accelerator extends the digital signal processor's performance into the required range for low-precision computations. The accelerator can be coupled with the main data path of a programmable processor or microprocessor and can directly read and write to the main register files of the programmable processor. In an illustrative implementation, the accelerator data path accesses its input values (source operands) directly from a main register file of the programmable processor and writes results back into a second main register file. The accelerator allows a plurality of low-precision algorithms requiring primarily addition or multiply-add computations, such as finite impulse response, correlation and Viterbi computations, to utilize the same adder cells. The accelerator includes a multi-mode adder that can be progr…

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