Patent · US Expired

Reducing latency, when accessing task priority levels

US7426728B2 · kind B2 · utility

9Cited by
16References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 24, 2003
Grant dateSep 16, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 27, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/3863
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

One embodiment disclosed relates to a method of reducing access latency to a task priority register (TPR) of a local programmable interrupt controller unit within a microprocessor. A command is received to write an interrupt mask value to the TPR, and the interrupt mask value is written to the TPR. In addition, the interrupt mask value is also written into a shadow copy of the TPR. The shadow copy is written each time that the TPR is written. Another embodiment disclosed relates to a method of reducing a latency to read a TPR of an IPF type microprocessor. When a command is received to read an interrupt mask value from the TPR, the interrupt mask value is read from the shadow copy at a memory location, instead of from the task priority register itself.

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