Patent · US Active

Virtualization assist for legacy x86 floating point exception handling

US7917740B1 · kind B1 · utility

3Cited by
7References
19Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 25, 2005
Grant dateMar 29, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 19, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/45533
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In one embodiment, a processor comprises an execution core configured to detect a freeze event responsive to an error indication, an ignore error indication, and an instruction in a guest. The instruction belongs to a predefined subset of instructions associated with the error indication and the ignore error indication. The execution core is configured to exit the guest in response to detecting the freeze event. In some embodiments, the error indication and the ignore indication may be stored in one or more registers in the processor. In some embodiments, the instruction is a floating point instruction, the error indication is a floating pointer error indication, and the ignore error indication is an ignore floating point error indication. In some embodiments, the error indication may correspond to an error signal output by the processor, and the ignore error indication may correspond to an ignore error signal input to the processor.

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