Patent · US Active

Multi-processor system having at least one processor that comprises a dynamically reconfigurable instruction set

US8156307B2 · kind B2 · utility

85Cited by
60References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 20, 2007
Grant dateApr 10, 2012
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 18, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/3897
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A multi-processor system comprises at least one host processor, which may comprise a fixed instruction set, such as the well-known x86 instruction set. The system further comprises at least one co-processor, which comprises dynamically reconfigurable logic that enables the co-processor's instruction set to be dynamically reconfigured. In this manner, the at least one host processor and the at least one dynamically reconfigurable co-processor are heterogeneous processors having different instruction sets. Further, cache coherency is maintained between the heterogeneous host and co-processors. And, a single executable file may contain instructions that are processed by the multi-processor system, wherein a portion of the instructions are processed by the host processor and a portion of the instructions are processed by the co-processor.

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