Instruction scanning unit for locating instructions via parallel

Details Instruction scanning unit for locating instructions via parallel Instruction scanning unit for locating instructions via parallel

1997-03-10

1998-12-22

Lall, Parshotam S.

395391, 395386, 395389, G06F 938

Patent

active

058527273

ABSTRACT:
An instruction scanning unit for a superscalar microprocessor is disclosed. The instruction scanning unit processes start, end, and functional byte information (or predecode data) associated with a plurality of contiguous instruction bytes. The processing of start byte information and end byte information is performed independently and in parallel, and the instruction scanning unit produces a plurality of scan values which identify valid instructions within the plurality of contiguous instruction bytes. Additionally, the instruction scanning unit is scaleable. Multiple instruction scanning units may be operated in parallel to process a larger plurality of contiguous instruction bytes. Furthermore, the instruction scanning unit detects error conditions in the predecode data in parallel with scanning to locate instructions. Moreover, in parallel with the error checking and scanning to locate instructions, MROM instructions are located for dispatch to an MROM unit.

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