REGISTER FILE STRUCTURES COMBINING VECTOR AND SCALAR DATA WITH GLOBAL AND LOCAL ACCESSES

摘要

The number of registers required is reduced by overlapping scalar and vector registers. This also allows increased compiler flexibility when mixing scalar and vector instructions. Local register read ports are minimized by restricting read access. Dedicated predicate registers reduces requirements for general registers, and allows reduction of critical timing paths by allowing the predicate registers to be placed next to the predicate unit.

主权项

1. A register file system, comprising:
a global register file operable to store scalar or vector data; one or more local register files; one or more predicate registers; a predication functional unit operable to independently manipulate predication bits and is coupled to the predicate registers; one or more functional units coupled to the predication functional unit, to the predication registers, to the global register file and to the local register files.