APPARATUS HAVING PROCESSING PIPELINE WITH FIRST AND SECOND EXECUTION CIRCUITRY, AND METHOD

摘要

A processing pipeline may have first and second execution circuits having different performance or energy consumption characteristics. Instruction supply circuitry may support different instruction supply schemes with different energy consumption or performance characteristics. This can allow a further trade-off between performance and energy efficiency. Architectural state storage can be shared between the execute units to reduce the overhead of switching between the units. In a parallel execution mode, groups of instructions can be executed on both execute units in parallel.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising:
a processing pipeline comprising: first and second execution circuitry to execute instructions, wherein the first and second execution circuitry have different performance or energy consumption characteristics; and instruction supply circuitry to supply instructions to the first and second execution circuitry, wherein the instruction supply circuitry supports first and second instruction supply schemes with different performance or energy consumption characteristics.