摘要:
A method and apparatus for patching a problematic instruction within a pipelined processor in a data processing system is presented. A plurality of instructions are fetched, and the plurality of instructions are matched against at least one match condition to generate a matched instruction. The match conditions may include matching the opcode of an instruction, the pre-decode bits of an instruction, a type of instruction, or other conditions. A matched instruction may be marked using a match bit that accompanies the instruction through the instruction pipeline. The matched instruction is then replaced with an internal opcode or internal instruction that causes the instruction scheduling unit to take a special software interrupt. The problematic instruction is then patched through the execution of a set of instructions that cause the desired logical operation of the problematic instruction.
摘要:
A method and apparatus for recovering from a hang condition in a processor having a plurality of execution units. Monitoring is performed to detect a hang condition. Responsive to detecting a hang condition, instructions dispatched to the plurality of execution units are flushed.
摘要:
The present invention discloses a system and method for implementing instruction tracing in a computer system and in particular a computer system with a tightly coupled shared processor central processor unit (CPU). Each of the processors are generally purpose processors that have been modified by design to allow an instruction to execute and simultaneously to be stored and forwarded to shared memory operable as a trace buffer. Since each processor is general purpose, the trace routine necessary for tracing, can by one of the routines or programs that can be written and executed on either of the processors. One of the processors can run, collect and analyze the executed and store instructions of the other processor. Since the processors can be on a single chip the shared memory bus that writes and reads the executed instructions can operate at high speed. Also since the trace function is part of the multiprocessor architecture its speed of operation will scale with the speed of the processors without modification.
摘要:
An ISYNC instruction does not cause a flush of speculatively dispatched or fetched instructions (instructions that are dispatched or fetched after the ISYNC instruction) unconditionally. The present invention detects the occurrence of any instruction that changes the state of the machine and requires a context synchronizing complete; these instructions are called context-synchronizing-required instructions. When a context-synchronizing-required instruction completes, the present invention sets a flag to note the occurrence of that condition. When an ISYNC instruction completes, the present invention causes a flush and refetches the instruction after the ISYNC if the context-synchronizing-required flag is active. The present invention then resets the context-synchronizing-required flag. If the context-synchronizing-required flag is not active, then the present invention does not generate a flush operation.
摘要:
An XER scoreboard function is provided by utilizing the instruction sequencer unit scoreboard. A scoreboard bit is set if the XER is being used by a previous instruction. If a new instruction is fetched that uses the XER, a dummy read to the XER is generated to test the scoreboard bit to determine if the scoreboard bit is set. If the scoreboard bit is not set when the dummy read is executed, the X-form string proceeds to execution. If the scoreboard bit is set when the dummy is executed, the pipeline is stalled until the scoreboard bit is cleared, and then the X-form string padded with generated padding IOPs (Dummy or NOPs) is executed. After an accessing instruction is executed, the scoreboard bit is cleared.
摘要:
A microprocessor includes a fetch unit, an instruction cracking unit, and dispatch and completion control logic. The fetch unit retrieves a set of instructions from an instruction cache. The instruction cracking unit receives the set of fetched instructions and organizes the set of instructions into an instruction group. The dispatch and completion logic assigns a group tag to the instruction group and records the group tag in an entry of the completion table for tracking the completion status of the instructions comprising the instruction group. The dispatch and control logic may record a single instruction address in the completion table entry corresponding to the each instruction group. Preferably, the single instruction address is the instruction address of the first instruction in the instruction group. The processor may flush the instruction group in response to detecting an exception generated by an instruction in the instruction group.
摘要:
A processor and an associated method and data processing system are disclosed. The processor includes an issue unit (ISU), a completion unit, and a hang detect unit. The ISU is configured to issue instructions to an execution unit. The completion unit is adapted to produce a completion valid signal responsive to the issue unit completing an instruction. The hang detect unit is configured to receive the completion valid signal from the ISU and adapted to determine the interval since the most recent assertion of the completion valid signal. The hang detect unit is adapted to initiate a hang recovery sequence upon determining that the interval since the most recent assertion of the completion valid signal exceeds a predetermined maximum interval. In one embodiment, the hang recovery sequence includes the hang recovery unit asserting a stop completion signal to a completion unit and a stop dispatch signal to a dispatch unit to suspend instruction completion and dispatch. The hang recovery unit then asserts a force reject signal to an execution unit to reject all instructions pending in the execution unit's pipeline and a flush signal to the execution unit that results in the processor flushing a set of instructions. The hang recovery unit then negates the force reject, stop completion, and stop dispatch signals to resume processor operation. In one embodiment, the recovery sequence includes entering a relaxed execution mode, such as a debug mode, a serial operation mode, or an in-order mode prior to resuming processor operation. In one embodiment, the processor advances a completion tag upon completing an instruction. In this manner the completion tag indicates the instruction that is next to complete. In one embodiment, the hang recovery sequence includes flushing the processor of an instruction set comprising all instructions with tag information greater than the completion tag. In another embodiment, all instructions with tag information greater than or equal to the completion tag are flushed.
摘要:
A method and system for atomic memory accesses in a processor system, wherein the processor system is able to issue and execute multiple instructions out of order with respect to a particular program order. A first reservation instruction is speculatively issued to an execution unit of the processor system. Upon issuance, instructions queued for the execution unit which occur after the first reservation instruction in the program order are flushed from the execution unit, in response to detecting any previously executed reservation instructions in the execution unit which occur after the first reservation instruction in the program order. The first reservation instruction is speculatively executed by placing a reservation for a particular data address of the first reservation instruction, in response to completion of instructions queued for the execution unit which occur prior to the first reservation instruction in the program order, such that reservation instructions which are speculatively issued and executed in any order are executed in-order with respect to a partnering conditional store instruction.
摘要:
A microprocessor and related method and data processing system are disclosed. The microprocessor includes a dispatch unit suitable for issuing an instruction executable by the microprocessor, an execution pipeline configured to receive the issued instruction, and a pending instruction unit. The pending instruction unit includes a set of pending instruction entries. A copy of the issued instruction is maintained in one of the set of pending instruction entries. The execution pipeline is adapted to record, in response detecting to a condition preventing the instruction from successfully completing one of the stages in the pipeline during a current cycle, an exception status with the copy of the instruction in the pending instruction unit and to advance the instruction to a next stage in the pipeline in the next cycle thereby preventing the condition from stalling the pipeline. Preferably, the dispatch unit, in response to the instruction finishing pipeline execution with an exception status, is adapted to use the copy of the instruction to re-issue the instruction to the execution pipeline in a subsequent cycle. In one embodiment, the dispatch unit is adapted to deallocate the copy of the instruction in the pending instruction unit in response to the instruction successfully completing pipeline execution. The pending instruction unit may detect successful completion of the instruction by detecting when the instruction has been pending for a predetermined number of cycles without recording an exception status. In this embodiment, each entry in the pending instruction unit may include a timer field comprising a set of bits wherein the number of bits in the time field equals the predetermined number of cycles. The pending instruction unit may set, in successive cycles, successive bits in the timer field such that successful completion of an instruction is indicated when a last bit in the time field is set. In one embodiment, pending instruction unit includes a set of copies of instructions corresponding to each of a set of instructions pending in the execution pipeline at any given time. In various embodiments, the execution pipeline may comprise a load/store pipeline, a floating point pipeline, or a fixed point pipeline.
摘要:
A method and system for increasing memory concurrency in a multiprocessor computer system which includes system memory, multiple processors coupled together via a bus, each of the processors including multiple processor units for executing multiple instructions and for performing read, write and store operations and an associated Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) for translating effective addresses into real memory addresses within the system memory. Multiple page table entries are provided within a page table within the system memory which each include multiple individually accessible fields, an effective address and an associated real memory address for a selected system memory location. A reference bit is provided within a first individually accessible field in each page table entry and this reference bit is utilized to indicate if an associated system memory location has been accessed for a read or write operation. A change bit is provided within a second individually accessible field within each page table entry and this change bit is utilized to indicate if an associated system memory location has been modified by a write operation. By storing the reference bit and change bit in separate accessible fields the reference bit and change bit may be concurrently updated by multiple processors, increasing memory concurrency.