Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Control technique
Patent
1997-11-20
2000-11-28
Gossage, Glenn
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Control technique
711152, 711153, 711170, 711173, 710130, G06F 1214, G06F 1300
Patent
active
061548189
ABSTRACT:
A system and method for controlling access to privilege partitioned address space for a model specific register file. A superscalar microprocessor includes a plurality of model specific registers (MSRs). MSRs differ between various implementations of a microprocessor architecture. The MSRs are allocated to access regions within a MSR file. Each access region of the MSR file is assigned access attributes. The MSRs are allocated such that the access region and the access attributes of the MSRs are defined by the address of the MSRs. Access to the MSRs is controlled by comparing the address of the MSR to the current privilege level of the microprocessor. In one embodiment, a validity check circuit is used to control access to the MSRs. If an access is attempted to a MSR that cannot be accessed at the current microprocessor privilege level, access to the register is denied and an exception is generated. In one embodiment, an address checker may be used to verify whether a MSR address is within a valid range. The MSR file may be divided into regions, with access granted based on a microprocessor being in a supervisory mode or a user mode.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4044338 (1977-08-01), Wolf
patent: 4453212 (1984-06-01), Gaither et al.
patent: 4807115 (1989-02-01), Torng
patent: 4858105 (1989-08-01), Kuriyama et al.
patent: 4928223 (1990-05-01), Dao et al.
patent: 5053631 (1991-10-01), Perlman et al.
patent: 5058048 (1991-10-01), Gupta et al.
patent: 5129067 (1992-07-01), Johnson
patent: 5136697 (1992-08-01), Johnson
patent: 5226126 (1993-07-01), McFarland et al.
patent: 5226130 (1993-07-01), Favor et al.
patent: 5396609 (1995-03-01), Schmidt et al.
patent: 5623636 (1997-04-01), Revilla et al.
patent: 5649159 (1997-07-01), Le et al.
patent: 5657475 (1997-08-01), Gillespie et al.
patent: 5737765 (1998-04-01), Shigeeda
patent: 5848435 (1998-12-01), Brant et al.
Intel 1994 Pentium Processor Family User's Manual, vol. 1: Pentium Processor Family Data Book, pp. 2-1 through 2-4.
Michael Slater, "AMD's K5 Designed to Outrun Pentium," Microprocessor Report, vol. 8, No. 14, Oct. 24, 1994, pp. 1, 6-11.
Sebastian Rupley and John Clyman, "P6: The Next Step?," PC Magazine, Sep. 12, 1995, pp. 102-137.
Tom R. Halfhill, "AMD K6 Takes On Intel P6," BYTE, Jan. 1996, pp. 67-72.
Advanced Micro Devices , Inc.
Gossage Glenn
Kivlin B. Noel
Merkel Lawrence J.
LandOfFree
System and method of controlling access to privilege partitioned does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System and method of controlling access to privilege partitioned, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method of controlling access to privilege partitioned will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1735856