IMPROVED INSTRUCTION DISPATCH MECHANISM FOR A GUARDED VLIW ARCHITECTURE

摘要

A very long instruction word (VLIW) architecture describes a processor comprising multiple functional units operating in parallel. A very long instruction word contains a plurality of fields or issue slots for specifying which operations are to be performed by the functional units. Execution of an operation can be inhibited by a guard value specified in the issue slot. Instructions are dispatched in such a guarded VLIW architecture by routing one of a plurality of fields issued for a common functional unit based on the guard value. Thus, an instruction word may contain a greater number of issue slots than there are functional units.