Method and apparatus for advancing load operations
US6658559B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 31, 1999 |
| Grant date | Dec 2, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 31, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3861
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A computer product, method, and apparatus for causing a computer to perform load operations in a particular way are disclosed. The computer is made to replace a load instruction at a particular location in a computer program instruction sequence with two instructions, an advanced load instruction and a load check instruction. The advanced load instruction is inserted into the instruction sequence up-stream from where the original load instruction was located, and may be inserted above store instructions. The load check instruction is inserted into the instruction sequence after the store instructions. An Advanced Load Address Table (ALAT) structure, containing physical address data and validity data for each non-speculative advanced load, is updated with data about each advanced load and each store instruction executed, and queried on execution of each load check instruction about whether or not a particular advanced load is safe to use. An advanced load speculative pipeline and speculative invalidation pipeline are similarly queried regarding speculative advanced loads.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.