Patents by Inventor CHRISTOPHER M. MUELLER

CHRISTOPHER M. MUELLER 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: 11360779
    Abstract: A computer system, processor, and method for processing information is disclosed that includes partitioning a logical register in the processor into a plurality of ranges of logical register entries based upon the logical register entry, assigning at least one recovery port of a history buffer to each range of logical register entries, initiating a flush recovery process for the processor, and directing history buffer entries to the assigned recovery port based upon the logical register entry associated with the history buffer entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Steven J. Battle, Salma Ayub, Brian D. Barrick, Joshua W. Bowman, Susan E. Eisen, Brandon Goddard, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 11269647
    Abstract: A simultaneous multithreading processor and related method of operating are disclosed. The method comprises dispatching portions of a first instruction to be executed by a respective plurality of execution units of the processor; receiving, at an instruction completion table of the processor, respective finish reports responsive to execution of the portions of the first instruction; determining, using the received finish reports, that all of the portions of the first instruction have been executed; and updating the instruction completion table to indicate that the first instruction is ready for completion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Susan E. Eisen, Dung Q. Nguyen, Glenn O. Kincaid, Christopher M. Mueller, Tu-An T. Nguyen, Gaurav Mittal, Deepak K. Singh
  • Publication number: 20210271487
    Abstract: A computer system includes a dispatch stage configured to dispatch a plurality of instructions in a program order, and an issue stage configured to issue at least one instruction among the plurality of instructions. The computer system further includes an execution stage configured to execute the at least one instruction to generate a finish report and to determine the at least one instruction is one of an exception-free instruction or an exception instruction. In response to determining the exception-free instruction, a first finish report associated with the exception-free instruction is output to a completion stage. In response to determining the exception instruction, a second finish report associated with the exception instruction is output to an exception unit so as to halt output of the second finish report to the completion stage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2020
    Publication date: September 2, 2021
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Susan Eisen, Christopher M. Mueller, Glenn O. Kincaid, Dhivya Jeganathan
  • Patent number: 11086630
    Abstract: A computer system includes a dispatch stage configured to dispatch a plurality of instructions in a program order, and an issue stage configured to issue at least one instruction among the plurality of instructions. The computer system further includes an execution stage configured to execute the at least one instruction to generate a finish report and to determine the at least one instruction is one of an exception-free instruction or an exception instruction. In response to determining the exception-free instruction, a first finish report associated with the exception-free instruction is output to a completion stage. In response to determining the exception instruction, a second finish report associated with the exception instruction is output to an exception unit so as to halt output of the second finish report to the completion stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Susan Eisen, Christopher M. Mueller, Glenn O. Kincaid, Dhivya Jeganathan
  • Patent number: 11068267
    Abstract: An aspect includes receiving a flush request at a processing unit that is in a current state defined by contents of registers in a register file. The processing unit includes a plurality of slices and the flush request includes an identifier of a previously issued instruction. The processing unit is restored to a previous state defined by contents of the registers in the register file prior to the previously issued instruction being issued. The restoring includes searching previous state buffers in at least two of the plurality of slices to locate data describing the contents of the registers in the register file prior to the previously issued instruction being issued. The restoring also includes combining the located data to generate results of the searching and updating the contents of the registers in the register file using a single port based at least in part on the results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Steven J. Battle, Brandon Goddard, Dung Q. Nguyen, Joshua W. Bowman, Brian D. Barrick, Susan Eisen, Salma Ayub, Christopher M. Mueller
  • Patent number: 11068274
    Abstract: A simultaneous multithreading processor is configured to select a first thread of the plurality of threads according to a predefined scheme, and access an instruction completion table to determine whether the first thread is eligible to have a first instruction prioritized. Responsive to determining that the first thread is eligible to have the first instruction prioritized, the simultaneous multithreading processor is further configured to execute the first instruction of the first thread using a dedicated prioritization resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Susan E. Eisen, Dung Q. Nguyen, Albert J. Van Norstrand, Jr., Glenn O. Kincaid, Christopher M. Mueller
  • Patent number: 10977034
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computer processing system are provided. The method includes processing, by a superscalar processing pipeline, respective sets of instructions in respective instruction processing cycles using an Instruction Completion Table (ICT) with a Ready-To-Complete (RTC) vector. The ICT includes a plurality of entries, each corresponding to a respective one of the instructions. A Next-To-Complete (NTC) instruction from among the respective sets of instructions is computed using the RTC vector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Susan E. Eisen, Glenn O. Kincaid, Dung Q. Nguyen, Deepak K. Singh, Gaurav Mittal, Christopher M. Mueller
  • Publication number: 20210089322
    Abstract: A computer system, processor, and method for processing information is disclosed that includes partitioning a logical register in the processor into a plurality of ranges of logical register entries based upon the logical register entry, assigning at least one recovery port of a history buffer to each range of logical register entries, initiating a flush recovery process for the processor, and directing history buffer entries to the assigned recovery port based upon the logical register entry associated with the history buffer entry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2020
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Inventors: Steven J. Battle, Salma Ayub, Brian D. Barrick, Joshua W. Bowman, Susan E. Eisen, Brandon Goddard, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 10949213
    Abstract: A computer system, processor, and method for processing information is disclosed that includes partitioning a logical register in the processor into a plurality of ranges of logical register entries based upon the logical register entry, assigning at least one recovery port of a history buffer to each range of logical register entries, initiating a flush recovery process for the processor, and directing history buffer entries to the assigned recovery port based upon the logical register entry associated with the history buffer entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Steven J. Battle, Salma Ayub, Brian D. Barrick, Joshua W. Bowman, Susan E. Eisen, Brandon Goddard, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 10936321
    Abstract: An approach is disclosed that that in one or more embodiments includes receiving an indicator to issue an out-of-order instruction or a type of out-of-order instruction in-order; receiving a first instruction; determining whether the first instruction corresponds to the indicated out-of-order instruction or the type of out-of-order instruction; writing, in response to determining that the first instruction corresponds to the indicated out-of-order instruction or the type of out-of-order instruction, an instruction identifier and a dependent instruction opcode into a first queue and an issue queue of the processor; receiving at least one subsequent instruction; determining whether an instruction opcode of the subsequent instructions matches the dependent instruction opcode of the first instruction; and writing, in response to determining the instruction opcode of the subsequent instruction matches the dependent instruction opcode of the instruction, a dependent instruction identifier for the subsequent instruc
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kurt A. Feiste, Joshua W. Bowman, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen, Deepak K. Singh, Brian W. Thompto
  • Patent number: 10838728
    Abstract: Supplemental instruction dispatch may be used in some instances in a parallel slice processor to dispatch additional instructions, referred to as supplemental instructions, to supplemental instruction ports of execution slices and using primary instruction ports of one or more execution slices to supply one or more source operands for such supplemental instructions. In addition, in some instances, in lieu of or in addition to supplemental instruction dispatch, selective slice partitioning may be used to selectively partition groups of execution slices in a parallel slice processor based upon a threading mode within which such execution slices are executing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kurt A. Feiste, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen, Eula A. Tolentino, Tien T. Tran, Jing Zhang
  • Patent number: 10831492
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed that control issuing branch instructions in a simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) system. An embodiment system includes an SMT processor circuit that receives, from one of a plurality of threads, a branch instruction having a favor bit. The SMT processor circuit schedules the branch instruction to issue, relative to branch instructions received from other threads in the plurality of threads, based on the favor bit. When the favor bit has a first value, the branch instruction is scheduled to have a higher priority to issue before the branch instructions received from other threads in the plurality of threads. When the favor bit has a second value, the branch instruction is scheduled to issue based an age of the branch instruction relative to respective ages of the branch instructions received from other threads in the plurality of threads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Salma Ayub, Glenn O. Kincaid, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen, Eula Faye Abalos Tolentino, Albert J. Van Norstrand, Jr., Kenneth L. Ward
  • Publication number: 20200341767
    Abstract: An aspect includes receiving a flush request at a processing unit that is in a current state defined by contents of registers in a register file. The processing unit includes a plurality of slices and the flush request includes an identifier of a previously issued instruction. The processing unit is restored to a previous state defined by contents of the registers in the register file prior to the previously issued instruction being issued. The restoring includes searching previous state buffers in at least two of the plurality of slices to locate data describing the contents of the registers in the register file prior to the previously issued instruction being issued. The restoring also includes combining the located data to generate results of the searching and updating the contents of the registers in the register file using a single port based at least in part on the results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2019
    Publication date: October 29, 2020
    Inventors: Steven J. Battle, Brandon Goddard, Dung Q. Nguyen, Joshua W. Bowman, Brian D. Barrick, Susan Eisen, Salma Ayub, Christopher M. Mueller
  • Publication number: 20200249954
    Abstract: An approach is disclosed that in one or more embodiments includes receiving an indicator to issue an out-of-order instruction or a type of out-of-order instruction in-order; receiving a first instruction; determining whether the first instruction corresponds to the indicated out-of-order instruction or the type of out-of-order instruction; writing, in response to determining that the first instruction corresponds to the indicated out-of-order instruction or the type of out-of-order instruction, an instruction identifier and a dependent instruction opcode into a first queue and an issue queue of the processor; receiving at least one subsequent instruction; determining whether an instruction opcode of the subsequent instructions matches the dependent instruction opcode of the first instruction; and writing, in response to determining the instruction opcode of the subsequent instruction matches the dependent instruction opcode of the instruction, a dependent instruction identifier for the subsequent instruction
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Inventors: Kurt A. Feiste, Joshua W. Bowman, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen, Deepak K. Singh, Brian W. Thompto
  • Patent number: 10713057
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for stopping completions using stop codes in an instruction completion table are provided by during a first clock cycle, in response to determining that a given entry in an Instruction Completion Table (ICT) is finalized and is associated with a stop code, completing, according to a program order, instructions included in one or more finalized entries of the ICT located in the ICT before the given entry; during a second clock cycle, after completing the instructions, performing exception processing for a special instruction included in the given entry; and during a third clock cycle, after processing the special instruction, completing, according to the program order, additional instructions in one or more finalized entries located in the ICT after the given entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Dung Q. Nguyen, Susan E. Eisen, Christopher M. Mueller, Joe Lee, Deepak K. Singh
  • Publication number: 20200183700
    Abstract: A computer system, processor, and method for processing information is disclosed that includes partitioning a logical register in the processor into a plurality of ranges of logical register entries based upon the logical register entry, assigning at least one recovery port of a history buffer to each range of logical register entries, initiating a flush recovery process for the processor, and directing history buffer entries to the assigned recovery port based upon the logical register entry associated with the history buffer entry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2018
    Publication date: June 11, 2020
    Inventors: Steven J. Battle, Salma Ayub, Brian D. Barrick, Joshua W. Bowman, Susan E. Eisen, Brandon Goddard, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen
  • Publication number: 20200142697
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computer processing system are provided. The method includes processing, by a superscalar processing pipeline, respective sets of instructions in respective instruction processing cycles using an Instruction Completion Table (ICT) with a Ready-To-Complete (RTC) vector. The ICT includes a plurality of entries, each corresponding to a respective one of the instructions. A Next-To-Complete (NTC) instruction from among the respective sets of instructions is computed using the RTC vector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2018
    Publication date: May 7, 2020
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Ward, Susan E. Eisen, Glenn O. Kincaid, Dung Q. Nguyen, Deepak K. Singh, Gaurav Mittal, Christopher M. Mueller
  • Publication number: 20200065110
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for stopping completions using stop codes in an instruction completion table are provided by during a first clock cycle, in response to determining that a given entry in an Instruction Completion Table (ICT) is finalized and is associated with a stop code, completing, according to a program order, instructions included in one or more finalized entries of the ICT located in the ICT before the given entry; during a second clock cycle, after completing the instructions, performing exception processing for a special instruction included in the given entry; and during a third clock cycle, after processing the special instruction, completing, according to the program order, additional instructions in one or more finalized entries located in the ICT after the given entry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2018
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Kenneth L. WARD, Dung Q. NGUYEN, Susan E. EISEN, Christopher M. MUELLER, Joe LEE, Deepak K. SINGH
  • Patent number: 10552165
    Abstract: Within a processor, speculative finishes of load instructions only are tracked in a speculative finish table by maintaining an oldest load instruction of a thread in the speculative finish table after data is loaded for the oldest load instruction, wherein a particular queue index tag assigned to the oldest load instruction by an execution unit points to a particular entry in the speculative finish table, wherein the oldest load instruction is waiting to be finished dependent upon an error check code result. Responsive to a flow unit receiving the particular queue index tag with an indicator that the error check code result for data retrieved for the oldest load instruction is good, finishing the oldest load instruction in the particular entry pointed to by the queue index tag and writing an instruction tag stored in the entry for the oldest load instruction out of the speculative finish table for completion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Susan E. Eisen, David A. Hrusecky, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen, A. James Van Norstrand, Jr., Kenneth L. Ward
  • Publication number: 20200012496
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed that control issuing branch instructions in a simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) system. An embodiment system includes an SMT processor circuit that receives, from one of a plurality of threads, a branch instruction having a favor bit. The SMT processor circuit schedules the branch instruction to issue, relative to branch instructions received from other threads in the plurality of threads, based on the favor bit. When the favor bit has a first value, the branch instruction is scheduled to have a higher priority to issue before the branch instructions received from other threads in the plurality of threads. When the favor bit has a second value, the branch instruction is scheduled to issue based an age of the branch instruction relative to respective ages of the branch instructions received from other threads in the plurality of threads.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2018
    Publication date: January 9, 2020
    Inventors: Salma Ayub, Glenn O. Kincaid, Christopher M. Mueller, Dung Q. Nguyen, Eula Faye Abalos Tolentino, Albert J. Van Norstrand, Jr., Kenneth L. Ward