Patents by Inventor Andrew S. Irwin

Andrew S. Irwin 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).

  • Patent number: 9477476
    Abstract: Fusing immediate value, write-based instructions in instruction processing circuits, and related processor systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first instruction indicating an operation writing an immediate value to a register is detected by an instruction processing circuit. The circuit also detects at least one subsequent instruction indicating an operation that overwrites at least one first portion of the register while maintaining a value of a second portion of the register. The at least one subsequent instruction is converted (or replaced) with a fused instruction(s), which indicates an operation writing the at least one first portion and the second portion of the register.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Melinda J. Brown, Michael William Morrow, James Norris Dieffenderfer, Brian Michael Stempel, Michael Scott McIlvaine, Rodney Wayne Smith, Jeffrey M. Schottmiller, Andrew S. Irwin
  • Patent number: 9195466
    Abstract: Fusing conditional write instructions having opposite conditions in instruction processing circuits and related processor systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first conditional write instruction writing a first value to a target register based on evaluating a first condition is detected by an instruction processing circuit. The circuit also detects a second conditional write instruction writing a second value to the target register based on evaluating a second condition that is a logical opposite of the first condition. Either the first condition or the second condition is selected as a fused instruction condition, and corresponding values are selected as if-true and if-false values. A fused instruction is generated for selectively writing the if-true value to the target register if the fused instruction condition evaluates to true, and selectively writing the if-false value to the target register if the fused instruction condition evaluates to false.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Melinda J. Brown, James Norris Dieffenderfer, Michael Scott McIlvaine, Brian Michael Stempel, Rodney Wayne Smith, Jeffery M. Schottmiller, Andrew S. Irwin, Michael William Morrow
  • Publication number: 20140149722
    Abstract: Fusing immediate value, write-based instructions in instruction processing circuits, and related processor systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first instruction indicating an operation writing an immediate value to a register is detected by an instruction processing circuit. The circuit also detects at least one subsequent instruction indicating an operation that overwrites at least one first portion of the register while maintaining a value of a second portion of the register. The at least one subsequent instruction is converted (or replaced) with a fused instruction(s), which indicates an operation writing the at least one first portion and the second portion of the register.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Publication date: May 29, 2014
    Applicant: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Melinda J. Brown, Michael William Morrow, James Norris Dieffenderfer, Brian Michael Stempel, Michael Scott McIlvaine, Rodney Wayne Smith, Jeffrey M. Schottmiller, Andrew S. Irwin
  • Publication number: 20140047221
    Abstract: Fusing flag-producing and flag-consuming instructions in instruction processing circuits and related processor systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed. In one embodiment, a flag-producing instruction indicating a first operation generating a first flag result is detected in an instruction stream by an instruction processing circuit. The instruction processing circuit also detects a flag-consuming instruction in the instruction stream indicating a second operation consuming the first flag result as an input. The instruction processing circuit generates a fused instruction indicating the first operation generating the first flag result and indicating the second operation consuming the first flag result as the input. In this manner, as a non-limiting example, the fused instruction eliminates a potential for a read-after-write hazard between the flag-producing instruction and the flag-consuming instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2013
    Publication date: February 13, 2014
    Applicant: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Andrew S. Irwin, James Norris Dieffenderfer, Melinda J. Brown, Jeffery M. Schottmiller, Brian Michael Stempel, Michael Scott McIlvaine, Rodney Wayne Smith, Michael William Morrow
  • Publication number: 20130311754
    Abstract: Fusing conditional write instructions having opposite conditions in instruction processing circuits and related processor systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first conditional write instruction writing a first value to a target register based on evaluating a first condition is detected by an instruction processing circuit. The circuit also detects a second conditional write instruction writing a second value to the target register based on evaluating a second condition that is a logical opposite of the first condition. Either the first condition or the second condition is selected as a fused instruction condition, and corresponding values are selected as if-true and if-false values. A fused instruction is generated for selectively writing the if-true value to the target register if the fused instruction condition evaluates to true, and selectively writing the if-false value to the target register if the fused instruction condition evaluates to false.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2012
    Publication date: November 21, 2013
    Applicant: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Melinda J. Brown, James Norris Dieffenderfer, Michael Scott McIlvaine, Brian Michael Stempel, Rodney Wayne Smith, Jeffrey M. Schottmiller, Andrew S. Irwin, Michael William Morrow