XML post-processing hardware acceleration

摘要

Aspects of the invention are directed to XML post-processing hardware acceleration for high-speed simple type checking (e.g., string and format checking) and whitespace collapsing. An apparatus for processing text data according to an embodiment includes a post processing engine (PPE); a set of post processing state machines coupled to the PPE; and a memory for storing text data to be processed by the set of post processing state machines; wherein the set of post processing state machines includes a whitespace handler state machine for reading text data from the memory and for applying a whitespace facet to at least 4 bytes of the text data during a clock cycle.

主权项

1. A method for processing text data, comprising:
applying, via a whitespace handler state machine, a whitespace facet to at least 4 bytes of text data during a clock cycle to provide further processed text data; and applying string and format checking to the at least 4 bytes of the further processed text data during a subsequent clock cycle; wherein applying the whitespace facet further comprises: performing one of a plurality of checking functions on the further processed text data in response to instructions from a post processing engine (PPE) and in response to receiving a 4 byte chunk of the further processed text data from the whitespace handler state machine; generating a mask, the mask including a set of bits, each bit in the set of bits in the mask indicating if a corresponding byte of the text data should be passed as output data; and generating multiplexer selects of a set of output multiplexers based on bit values in the mask; and wherein generating a mask further comprises, for each bit in the set of bits in the mask: assigning a first value to the bit in response to detecting the corresponding byte of the text data comprises a whitespace character; and assigning a second value to the bit in response to detecting the corresponding byte of the text data does not comprise the whitespace character.