Patent · US Active

Operand size control

US9804851B2 · kind B2 · utility

7Cited by
9References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 14, 2011
Grant dateOct 31, 2017
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 22, 2036

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2221/2145
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A data processing system is provided with processing circuitry as well as a bank of 64-bit registers. An instruction decoder decodes arithmetic instructions and logical instruction specifying arithmetic operations and logical operations to be performed upon operands stored within the 64-bit registers. The instruction decoder is responsive to an operand size field SF within the arithmetic instructions and the logical instructions specifying whether the operands are 64-bit operands or 32-bit operands where all of the operands are 64-bit operands or all of the operands are 32-bit operands. If a switch is made to a lower exception level, then a check is made as to whether or not a register being used was previously subject to a 64-bit write to that register. If such a 64-bit write had previously taken place, then the upper 32-bits are flushed so as to avoid data leakage from the higher exception level.

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