摘要:
A data processing system is provided with mechanisms such that when a data value is stored within a data register, further data values are stored within one or more further registers such that the total number of signal transitions from high to low and from low to high does not vary in dependence upon the data value being written or the previous data value.
摘要:
Within a system supporting execution of variable length instructions a program is stored within discrete memory regions with a variable length instruction spanning a gap between two such discrete memory regions. When execution is attempted of such a variable length instruction spanning a gap, an abort handler is initiated which serves to copy the end portion of one of the memory regions together with the start portion of the other memory region into a separate fix-up memory region where these may be concatenated such that the whole of the variable length instruction will appear in one place. Execution of that variable length instruction from out of the fix-up memory region can then be triggered. This execution is constrained by the setting of a single step flag which causes the hardware to only execute the single instruction which span the gap before returning control to a single step exception handler which can then restore program flow to the point in the following memory region after the variable length instruction which spanned the gap.
摘要:
Apparatus for processing data under control of data processing instructions specifying data processing operations, said apparatus comprising: a first execution mechanism operable to execute a first set of data processing instructions; a second execution mechanism operable to execute a second set of data processing instructions, said first set of data processing instructions overlapping with said second set of data processing instructions such that one or more data processing instructions are executable by either said first execution mechanism or said second execution mechanism; and an execution mechanism selector operable to pseudo randomly selected either said first execution mechanism or said second execution mechanism to execute one or more data processing instructions that are executable by either said first execution mechanism or said second execution mechanism.
摘要:
A data processing apparatus configured to operate in a voltage and frequency operating region that is located beyond a safe region where errors do not arise, but within operating region limits such that the errors are rare. The data processing apparatus comprises: error detection circuitry and error recovery circuitry; the error detection circuitry being configured to determine if a signal sampled in the processing apparatus changes within a time window occurring after the signal has been sampled and during a same clock cycle as the sampling and to signal an error if the signal does change. The data processing apparatus further comprises performance control circuitry configured to determine when the data processing apparatus is operating close to the operating region limits where an error rate is raised and in response to determining operation close to the operating region limits to modify a behavior of the data processing apparatus by at least one of: limiting speculative processing, and selecting timing insensitive processing paths and circuitry.
摘要:
A data processing apparatus executes instructions in a sequence of pipelined execution stages. An error detection unit twice samples a signal associated with execution of an instruction and generates an error signal if the samples differ. An exception storage unit maintains an age-ordered list of entries corresponding to instructions issued to the execution pipeline and can mark an entry to show if the error signal has been generated in association with that instruction. A timer unit is responsive to generation of the error signal to initiate timing of a predetermined time period. An error recovery unit initiates a soft pipeline flush procedure if an oldest pending entry in the list has said error marker stored in association therewith and initiates a hard pipeline flush procedure if said predetermined time period elapses, said hard flush procedure comprising resetting said pipeline to a predetermined state.
摘要:
A register renaming unit has mapping control circuitry which serves to suppress unnecessary mapping operations in dependence upon a detected current state of the data processing system. One example of circumstances which can be detected from the current state and in which mapping can be suppressed and the existing mapping reused are that in respect of the existing physically mapped register there are no pending writes, no pending reads and no pending requirement for that physically mapped register to be preserved as a recovery register. Another example of a current state in which a mapping can be reused is adjacent program instructions having mutually exclusive condition codes and sharing a destination register such that only one of those adjacent instructions will ever be executed.
摘要:
A data processing apparatus with a processing pipeline, the pipeline including exception control circuitry and error detection circuitry. An exception storage unit is configured to maintain an age-ordered list of entries corresponding to instructions issued to the processing pipeline for execution. The unit is configured to store, in association with each entry, an exception indicator indicating whether the instruction is an exception instruction and whether it has generated an exception and an error indicator indicating whether the instruction has generated an error. The apparatus is configured to indicate to the exception storage unit that an instruction is resolved when processing of the instruction has reached a stage such that it is known whether the instruction will generate an error and whether the instruction will generate an exception; and the exception control circuitry is configured to sequentially retire oldest resolved entries from the list in the exception storage unit.
摘要:
A data processing apparatus has error detection units each configured to generate an error signal if a first and second sample of a signal associated with execution of an instruction differ. Error value generation circuitry generates an error value showing if any of the error detection units have generated the error signal. Error value stabilisation circuitry performs a stabilisation procedure comprising re-sampling the error value to remove metastability. Error recovery circuitry initiates re-execution of the instruction if the error value is asserted. Count circuitry holds a counter value in association with the error value, the counter value set to a predetermined value when the error value is generated and decremented each time the error value is re-sampled prior to reaching the error value stabilisation circuitry. The error value bypasses the stabilisation procedure if the counter value is zero before the error value reaches the error value stabilisation circuitry.
摘要:
An apparatus for processing data includes diagnostic mechanisms for providing watch point and breakpoint functionality. Semaphores are associated with the watch points and are provided with hardware support within the diagnostic circuitry serving to monitor whether or not accesses to watch point data is being made in accordance with the permissions set up and noted in the semaphore data.
摘要:
A register renaming unit 8 has mapping control circuitry 24 which serves to suppress unnecessary mapping operations in dependence upon a detected current state of the data processing system 2. One example of circumstances which can be detected from the current state and in which mapping can be suppressed and the existing mapping reused are that in respect of the existing physically mapped register there are no pending writes, no pending reads and no pending requirement for that physically mapped register to be preserved as a recovery register. Another example of a current state in which a mapping can be reused is adjacent program instructions having mutually exclusive condition codes and sharing a destination register such that only one of those adjacent instructions will every be executed.