Apparatus for sampling path history in a processor pipeline

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing – Processing control – Specialized instruction processing in support of testing,...

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712216, 714 47, G06F 944, G06F 1134

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061483966

ABSTRACT:
An apparatus is provided for collecting state information associated with an execution path of recently processed instructions in a processor pipeline of a computer system. The apparatus identifies a class of instructions to be sampled. Path-identifying state information of a currently processed instruction is sampled when the currently processed instruction belongs to the identified class of instructions. A shift register stores a predetermined number of entries storing selected state information, the shift register is simultaneously sampled along with additional state information about the instruction being executed at the time of sampling.

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