Multifield register having a selection field for selecting a source of an information field
US6449675B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 29, 1999 |
| Grant date | Sep 10, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 29, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/4812
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A data processing system (10) has a multifield register (62) which has two fields, a selection field (90) and an information field (91). The selection field (90) identifies the source of the information loaded in the information field (91). In one embodiment, the multifield register (62) is an interrupt flag register (62) and the selection field (90) identifies which of the two registers portions (59,60) of the interrupt pending register (58) is loaded into the multifield register (62). The low register portion (59) can identify up to thirty-one sources of interrupt requests and the high register portion (60) can identify up to thirty-two sources of interrupt requests even though the information field (91) is only thirty-one bits. This is achievable because the selection field (90) may serves a dual function, namely as a flag bit and as bit-32 of the interrupt pending register (58).
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.