A data processor with concurrent independent static and dynamic masking of operand information.

摘要

A data processing system (10) implements a static and a dynamic masking operation of operand information concurrently. A static mask implements a conditional mask of a predetermined number of bits specified by the user and is determined prior to a comparison operation between the breakpoint address stored in a breakpoint register (24) and a logical address transferred via a logical address bus (11). A dynamic mask value implements a variable mask which allows the data processing system to mask the breakpoint address according to the size of a breakpoint address access. The static mask value and the dynamic mask value are concurrently implemented using a specialized bit cell (60) contained in both the breakpoint register (24) and the CAM array (26). The specialized bit cell (60) is comprised of two transistors (62 and 64) to concurrently mask a respective bit of operand information during a comparison operation.