Automatic register backup/restore system and method

Details Automatic register backup/restore system and method Automatic register backup/restore system and method

2006-11-28

2006-11-28

Treat, William M. (Department: 2181)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing

Processing control

Mode switch or change

C712S244000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07143271

ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to an automatic register backup/restore system. The system comprises: a general register file, a backup register file, at least one backup mode signal and at least one selector for selecting the general register file. The general register file comprises a plurality of general registers, and the backup register file comprises a plurality of backup registers. According to the system of the invention, upon exception, a backup mode is determined according to the cause of the exception. Then, according to the determined backup mode, the contents of at least one general register are automatically copied into at least one backup register. Upon leaving the exception process, according to the determined backup mode, the contents of the corresponding general registers are restored from the corresponding backup registers by using at least one selector. Therefore, the system of the invention can reduce the data moving activities between memory and registers during exception process. Because of the single operation mode of the system, the system does not need any selection-mode bit for selecting accessible registers due to different operation modes as used in the prior art. Therefore, the system of the invention can decrease the latency of accessing registers.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5159680 (1992-10-01), Joy et al.
patent: 5386563 (1995-01-01), Thomas
patent: 5588113 (1996-12-01), Johnson
patent: 5675759 (1997-10-01), Shebanow et al.
patent: 5701436 (1997-12-01), Nagashima et al.
patent: 5701493 (1997-12-01), Jaggar
patent: 5793944 (1998-08-01), Luick
patent: 6243804 (2001-06-01), Cheng
patent: 6801997 (2004-10-01), Joy et al.
patent: 7024544 (2006-04-01), Shelor
patent: 2004/0260910 (2004-12-01), Watt et al.
patent: 494644 (2002-07-01), None

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Automatic register backup/restore system and method does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Automatic register backup/restore system and method, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automatic register backup/restore system and method will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3663087