Patents by Inventor Martin G. Dixon

Martin G. Dixon has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20160313993
    Abstract: An apparatus is described that includes an execution unit within an instruction pipeline. The execution unit has multiple stages of a circuit that includes a) and b) as follows: a) a first logic circuitry section having multiple mix logic sections each having: i) a first input to receive a first quad word and a second input to receive a second quad word; ii) an adder having a pair of inputs that are respectively coupled to the first and second inputs; iii) a rotator having a respective input coupled to the second input; iv) an XOR gate having a first input coupled to an output of the adder and a second input coupled to an output of the rotator. b) permute logic circuitry having inputs coupled to the respective adder and XOR gate outputs of the multiple mix logic sections.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2016
    Publication date: October 27, 2016
    Inventors: GILBERT M. WOLRICH, KIRK S. YAP, JAMES D. GUILFORD, ERDINC OZTURK, VINODH GOPAL, WAJDI K. FEGHALI, SEAN M. GULLEY, MARTIN G. DIXON
  • Publication number: 20160266992
    Abstract: Novel instructions, logic, methods and apparatus are disclosed to test transactional execution status. Embodiments include decoding a first instruction to start a transactional region. Responsive to the first instruction, a checkpoint for a set of architecture state registers is generated and memory accesses from a processing element in the transactional region associated with the first instruction are tracked. A second instruction to detect transactional execution of the transactional region is then decoded. An operation is executed, responsive to decoding the second instruction, to determine if an execution context of the second instruction is within the transactional region. Then responsive to the second instruction, a first flag is updated. In some embodiments, a register may optionally be updated and/or a second flag may optionally be updated responsive to the second instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2015
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, Bret L. Toll, Konrad K. Lai, Matthew C. Merten, Martin G. Dixon
  • Patent number: 9436435
    Abstract: An apparatus is described that includes a semiconductor chip having an instruction execution pipeline having one or more execution units with respective logic circuitry to: a) execute a first instruction that multiplies a first input operand and a second input operand and presents a lower portion of the result, where, the first and second input operands are respective elements of first and second input vectors; b) execute a second instruction that multiplies a first input operand and a second input operand and presents an upper portion of the result, where, the first and second input operands are respective elements of first and second input vectors; and, c) execute an add instruction where a carry term of the add instruction's adding is recorded in a mask register.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Gilbert M. Wolrich, Kirk S. Yap, James D. Guilford, Erdinc Ozturk, Vinodh Gopal, Wajdi K. Feghali, Sean M. Gulley, Martin G. Dixon
  • Publication number: 20160248580
    Abstract: A flexible aes instruction set for a general purpose processor is provided. The instruction set includes instructions to perform a “one round” pass for aes encryption or decryption and also includes instructions to perform key generation. An immediate may be used to indicate round number and key size for key generation for 128/192/256 bit keys. The flexible aes instruction set enables full use of pipelining capabilities because it does not require tracking of implicit registers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2015
    Publication date: August 25, 2016
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Shay Gueron, Wajdi K. Feghali, Vinodh Gopal, Raghunandan Makaram, Martin G. Dixon, Srinivas Chennupaty, Michael E. Kounavis
  • Publication number: 20160246606
    Abstract: An apparatus and method is described herein for providing robust speculative code section abort control mechanisms. Hardware is able to track speculative code region abort events, conditions, and/or scenarios, such as an explicit abort instruction, a data conflict, a speculative timer expiration, a disallowed instruction attribute or type, etc. And hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof makes an abort determination based on the tracked abort events. As an example, hardware may make an initial abort determination based on one or more predefined events or choose to pass the event information up to a firmware or software handler to make such an abort determination. Upon determining an abort of a speculative code region is to be performed, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof performs the abort, which may include following a fallback path specified by hardware or software.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2015
    Publication date: August 25, 2016
    Inventors: Martin G. Dixon, Ravi Rajwar, Konrad K. Lai, Robert S. Chappell, Rajesh S. Parthasarathy, Alexandre J. Farcy, Ilhyun Kim, Prakash Math, Matthew Merten, Vijakumar Kadgi
  • Publication number: 20160239304
    Abstract: An apparatus and method is described herein for providing robust speculative code section abort control mechanisms. Hardware is able to track speculative code region abort events, conditions, and/or scenarios, such as an explicit abort instruction, a data conflict, a speculative timer expiration, a disallowed instruction attribute or type, etc. And hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof makes an abort determination based on the tracked abort events. As an example, hardware may make an initial abort determination based on one or more predefined events or choose to pass the event information up to a firmware or software handler to make such an abort determination. Upon determining an abort of a speculative code region is to be performed, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof performs the abort, which may include following a fallback path specified by hardware or software.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2015
    Publication date: August 18, 2016
    Inventors: Martin G. Dixon, Ravi Rajwar, Konrad K. Lai, Robert S. Chappell, Rajesh S. Parthasarathy, Alexandre J. Farcy, Ilhyun Kim, Prakash Math, Matthew Merten, Vijaykumar Kadgi
  • Patent number: 9411600
    Abstract: Instructions and logic provide memory key protection functionality. Embodiments include a processor having a register to store a memory protection field. A decoder decodes an instruction having an addressing form field for a memory operand to specify one or more memory addresses, and a memory protection key. One or more execution units, responsive to the memory protection field having a first value and to the addressing form field of the decoded instruction having a second value, enforce memory protection according to said first value of the memory protection field, using the specified memory protection key, for accessing the one or more memory addresses, and fault if a portion of the memory protection key specified by the decoded instruction does not match a stored key value associated with the one or more memory addresses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: H. Peter Anvin, Martin G. Dixon
  • Patent number: 9405537
    Abstract: An apparatus is described that includes an execution unit within an instruction pipeline. The execution unit has multiple stages of a circuit that includes a) and b) as follows. a) a first logic circuitry section having multiple mix logic sections each having: i) a first input to receive a first quad word and a second input to receive a second quad word; ii) an adder having a pair of inputs that are respectively coupled to the first and second inputs; iii) a rotator having a respective input coupled to the second input; iv) an XOR gate having a first input coupled to an output of the adder and a second input coupled to an output of the rotator. b) permute logic circuitry having inputs coupled to the respective adder and XOR gate outputs of the multiple mix logic sections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Gilbert M. Wolrich, Kirk S. Yap, James D. Guilford, Erdinc Ozturk, Vinodh Gopal, Wajdi K. Feghali, Sean M. Gulley, Martin G. Dixon
  • Publication number: 20160216967
    Abstract: A processor of an aspect includes a plurality of logical processors. A first logical processor of the plurality is to execute software that includes a memory access synchronization instruction that is to synchronize accesses to a memory. The processor also includes memory access synchronization relaxation logic that is to prevent the memory access synchronization instruction from synchronizing accesses to the memory when the processor is in a relaxed memory access synchronization mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2016
    Publication date: July 28, 2016
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Martin G. Dixon, William C. Rash, Yazmin A. Santiago
  • Publication number: 20160210177
    Abstract: An apparatus and method is described herein for providing robust speculative code section abort control mechanisms. Hardware is able to track speculative code region abort events, conditions, and/or scenarios, such as an explicit abort instruction, a data conflict, a speculative timer expiration, a disallowed instruction attribute or type, etc. And hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof makes an abort determination based on the tracked abort events. As an example, hardware may make an initial abort determination based on one or more predefined events or choose to pass the event information up to a firmware or software handler to make such an abort determination. Upon determining an abort of a speculative code region is to be performed, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof performs the abort, which may include following a fallback path specified by hardware or software.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2015
    Publication date: July 21, 2016
    Inventors: Martin G. Dixon, Ravi Rajwar, Konrad K. Lai, Robert S. Chappell, Rajesh S. Parthasarathy, Alexandre J. Farcy, Ilhyun Kim, Prakash Math, Matthew Merten, Vijaykumar Kadgi
  • Publication number: 20160202987
    Abstract: Novel instructions, logic, methods and apparatus are disclosed to test transactional execution status. Embodiments include decoding a first instruction to start a transactional region. Responsive to the first instruction, a checkpoint for a set of architecture state registers is generated and memory accesses from a processing element in the transactional region associated with the first instruction are tracked. A second instruction to detect transactional execution of the transactional region is then decoded. An operation is executed, responsive to decoding the second instruction, to determine if an execution context of the second instruction is within the transactional region. Then responsive to the second instruction, a first flag is updated. In some embodiments, a register may optionally be updated and/or a second flag may optionally be updated responsive to the second instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2015
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, Bret L. Toll, Konrad K. Lai, Matthew C. Marten, Martin G. Dixon
  • Publication number: 20160202979
    Abstract: Novel instructions, logic, methods and apparatus are disclosed to test transactional execution status. Embodiments include decoding a first instruction to start a transactional region. Responsive to the first instruction, a checkpoint for a set of architecture state registers is generated and memory accesses from a processing element in the transactional region associated with the first instruction are tracked. A second instruction to detect transactional execution of the transactional region is then decoded. An operation is executed, responsive to decoding the second instruction, to determine if an execution context of the second instruction is within the transactional region. Then responsive to the second instruction, a first flag is updated. In some embodiments, a register may optionally be updated and/or a second flag may optionally be updated responsive to the second instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2015
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, Bret L. Toll, Konrad K. Lai, Matthew C. Merten, Martin G. Dixon
  • Publication number: 20160203068
    Abstract: Novel instructions, logic, methods and apparatus are disclosed to test transactional execution status. Embodiments include decoding a first instruction to start a transactional region. Responsive to the first instruction, a checkpoint for a set of architecture state registers is generated and memory accesses from a processing element in the transactional region associated with the first instruction are tracked. A second instruction to detect transactional execution of the transactional region is then decoded. An operation is executed, responsive to decoding the second instruction, to determine if an execution context of the second instruction is within the transactional region. Then responsive to the second instruction, a first flag is updated. In some embodiments, a register may optionally be updated and/or a second flag may optionally be updated responsive to the second instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2015
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, Bret L. Toll, Konrad K. Lai, Matthew C. Merten, Martin G. Dixon
  • Publication number: 20160203019
    Abstract: Novel instructions, logic, methods and apparatus are disclosed to test transactional execution status. Embodiments include decoding a first instruction to start a transactional region. Responsive to the first instruction, a checkpoint for a set of architecture state registers is generated and memory accesses from a processing element in the transactional region associated with the first instruction are tracked. A second instruction to detect transactional execution of the transactional region is then decoded. An operation is executed, responsive to decoding the second instruction, to determine if an execution context of the second instruction is within the transactional region. Then responsive to the second instruction, a first flag is updated. In some embodiments, a register may optionally be updated and/or a second flag may optionally be updated responsive to the second instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2015
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, Bret L. Toll, Konrad K. Lai, Matthew C. Merten, Martin G. Dixon
  • Publication number: 20160197720
    Abstract: A flexible aes instruction set for a general purpose processor is provided. The instruction set includes instructions to perform a “one round” pass for aes encryption or decryption and also includes instructions to perform key generation. An immediate may be used to indicate round number and key size for key generation for 128/192/256 bit keys. The flexible aes instruction set enables full use of pipelining capabilities because it does not require tracking of implicit registers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2015
    Publication date: July 7, 2016
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: SHAY GUERON, WAJDI K FEGHALI, VINODH GOPAL, RAGHUNANDAN MAKARAM, MARTIN G DIXON, SRINIVAS CHENNUPATY, MICHAEL KOUNAVIS
  • Publication number: 20160196219
    Abstract: A flexible aes instruction set for a general purpose processor is provided. The instruction set includes instructions to perform a “one round” pass for aes encryption or decryption and also includes instructions to perform key generation. An immediate may be used to indicate round number and key size for key generation for 128/192/256 bit keys. The flexible aes instruction set enables full use of pipelining capabilities because it does not require tracking of implicit registers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2015
    Publication date: July 7, 2016
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Shay Gueron, Wajdi K. Feghali, Vinodh Gopal, Raghunandan Makaram, Martin G. Dixon, Srinivas Chennupaty, Michael Kounavis
  • Publication number: 20160188479
    Abstract: Novel instructions, logic, methods and apparatus are disclosed to test transactional execution status. Embodiments include decoding a first instruction to start a transactional region. Responsive to the first instruction, a checkpoint for a set of architecture state registers is generated and memory accesses from a processing element in the transactional region associated with the first instruction are tracked. A second instruction to detect transactional execution of the transactional region is then decoded. An operation is executed, responsive to decoding the second instruction, to determine if an execution context of the second instruction is within the transactional region. Then responsive to the second instruction, a first flag is updated. In some embodiments, a register may optionally be updated and/or a second flag may optionally be updated responsive to the second instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2015
    Publication date: June 30, 2016
    Inventors: Ravi Rajwar, Bret L. Toll, Konrad K. Lai, Matthew Merten, Martin G. Dixon
  • Patent number: 9372764
    Abstract: Event counter checkpointing and restoring is disclosed. In one implementation, a processor includes a first event counter to count events that occur during execution within the processor, event counter checkpoint logic, communicably coupled with the first event counter, to store, prior to a transactional execution of the processor, a value of the first event counter, a second event counter to count events prior to and during the transactional execution, wherein the second event counter is to increment without resetting after the transactional execution is aborted, event count restore logic to restore the first event counter to the stored value after the transactional execution is aborted, and tuning logic to determine, in response to aborting of the transactional execution, a number of the events that occurred during the transactional execution based on the stored value of the first event counter and a value of the second event counter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Laura A. Knauth, Ravi Rajwar, Konrad K. Lai, Martin G. Dixon, Peggy Irelan
  • Publication number: 20160154648
    Abstract: An apparatus and method is described herein for providing robust speculative code section abort control mechanisms. Hardware is able to track speculative code region abort events, conditions, and/or scenarios, such as an explicit abort instruction, a data conflict, a speculative timer expiration, a disallowed instruction attribute or type, etc. And hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof makes an abort determination based on the tracked abort events. As an example, hardware may make an initial abort determination based on one or more predefined events or choose to pass the event information up to a firmware or software handler to make such an abort determination. Upon determining an abort of a speculative code region is to be performed, hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof performs the abort, which may include following a fallback path specified by hardware or software.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2015
    Publication date: June 2, 2016
    Inventors: Martin G. Dixon, Ravi Rajwar, Konrad K. Lai, Robert S. Chappell, Rajesh S. Parthasarathy, Alexandre J. Farcy, Ilhyun Kim, Prakash Math, Matthew Merten, Vijaykumar Kadgi
  • Patent number: 9354681
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a processor includes a plurality of cores. Each core includes a core power unit to detect one or more power management events, and in response to the one or more power management events, initiate a protected power management mode in the core. Software interrupts to the core may be disabled during the protected power management mode. The core is to execute power management code during the protected power management mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: William C. Rash, Martin G. Dixon, Yazmin A. Santiago