Method and system to perform a thread switching operation within a multithreaded processor based on detection of a flow marker within an instruction information

摘要

A method of performing a thread switching operation within a multithreaded processor includes detecting dispatch of a first predetermined quantity of instruction information of a first thread, from an instruction streaming buffer to an instruction pre-decoder within the multithreaded processor. A flow marker within instruction information for the first thread received at the instruction information source is also detected. Responsive to the detection of the dispatch of the first predetermined quantity of instruction information of the first thread, and responsive to the detection of the flow marker, a thread switching operation is performed with respect to the output of the instruction streaming buffer. The dispatch of instruction information of a second thread from the instruction streaming buffer is thus commenced.