Abstract: In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method that includes providing a memory access instruction of a processing element's instruction set including multiple parameters.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for adding an additional agent to a set of symmetric agents in a bus-based system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the number of symmetric agents in the system is fixed. An additional agent may monitor the symmetric arbitration of the symmetric agents, and at a given stage of the symmetric arbitration assert a priority agent bus request. The priority agent bus request may be shared with another priority agent. This may permit the additional agent to access the bus in a fair manner that behaves as though it were an additional symmetric agent in the system.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system for implementing off-chip cache memory in dual-use static random access memory (SRAM) memory for network processors. An off-chip SRAM memory store is partitioned into a resizable cache region and general-purpose use region (i.e., conventional SRAM use). The cache region is used to store cached data corresponding to portions of data contained in a second off-chip memory store, such as a dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory store or an alternative type of memory store, such as a Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) memory store. An on-chip cache management controller is integrated on the network processor. Various cache management schemes are disclosed, including hardware-based cache tag arrays, memory-based cache tag arrays, content-addressable memory (CAM)-based cache management, and memory address-to-cache line lookup schemes. Under one scheme, multiple network processors are enabled to access shared SRAM and shared DRAM, wherein a portion of the shared SRAM is used as a cache for the shared DRAM.

Abstract: An apparatus for gathering queue performance data includes an event conditioning logic unit that receives a queue enter signal, a queue exit signal, and a queue not empty signal from a queue. The apparatus also includes a counter that may be both incremented and decremented. The event conditioning logic unit may be programmed to increment the counter upon occurrences of a predetermined combination of the queue signals. The event conditioning logic unit may also be programmed to decrement the counter upon occurrences of an additional predetermined combination of the queue signals.

Abstract: A method for identifying a logic event in a logic environment, the method including providing one of a reference parameter and a next reference parameter, receiving starting event information corresponding to a logic event, ending event information corresponding to the logic event, and at least one identification parameter information associated with the logic event, determining an actual parameter corresponding to at least one of a duration parameter and a capacity parameter corresponding to the logic event, comparing the actual parameter to the reference parameter and providing a comparison result, and if the comparison result at least indicates that the actual parameter is no less than the reference parameter, performing at least one of replacing the reference parameter with the actual parameter to provide the next reference parameter and providing the at least one identification parameter.

Abstract: A method for identifying a logic event in a logic environment, the method including providing one of a reference parameter and a next reference parameter, receiving starting event information corresponding to a logic event, ending event information corresponding to the logic event, and at least one identification parameter information associated with the logic event, determining an actual parameter corresponding to at least one of a duration parameter and a capacity parameter corresponding to the logic event, comparing the actual parameter to the reference parameter and providing a comparison result, and if the comparison result at least indicates that the actual parameter is no less than the reference parameter, performing at least one of replacing the reference parameter with the actual parameter to provide the next reference parameter and providing the at least one identification parameter.

Abstract: A host processor and a network processor may interact effectively, particularly with edge applications that involve tasks that are best handled independently by both the host and network processors. Data may be exchanged between the processors, for example, by simply passing pointers, avoiding the need for excessive data coping.

Abstract: An example embodiment of a method and apparatus for dynamically changing computer system configuration to improve software application performance includes a system logic device that implements at least two different configurations. The system logic device may change configuration depending on what software application is running. The system logic device can change configurations while the computer system is running and may change configurations in order to optimize performance for whatever application is currently running.

Abstract: A method for identifying a logic event in a logic environment, the method including providing one of a reference parameter and a next reference parameter, receiving starting event information corresponding to a logic event, ending event information corresponding to the logic event, and at least one identification parameter information associated with the logic event, determining an actual parameter corresponding to at least one of a duration parameter and a capacity parameter corresponding to the logic event, comparing the actual parameter to the reference parameter and providing a comparison result, and if the comparison result at least indicates that the actual parameter is no less than the reference parameter, performing at least one of replacing the reference parameter with the actual parameter to provide the next reference parameter and providing the at least one identification parameter.

Abstract: A method for determining an estimated runtime of a software application, the method including the providing of a reference runtime of the software application for a reference system configuration, wherein the reference system configuration includes a processor, a processor bus and at least one processor service component, the providing of a processor bus utilization parameter associated with the reference system configuration, the providing of a first processor bus queue statistic associated with the reference runtime, the providing of a second processor bus queue statistic associated with the reference runtime, and determining the estimated runtime based on the reference runtime, the processor bus utilization parameter, the first processor bus queue statistic and the second processor bus queue statistic.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided through which automatic and adaptive use of active network performance measurement techniques identifies a fastest download source. Before a download source is selected, empirical measurements of the download speed are performed. For small files, the first source to acknowledge an open socket connection is used as an indication of the fastest download source. For large files, a download test is performed as the empirical measurement to determine the fastest download source.

Abstract: An apparatus for gathering queue performance data includes an event conditioning logic unit that receives a queue enter signal, a queue exit signal, and a queue not empty signal from a queue. The apparatus also includes a counter that may be both incremented and decremented. The event conditioning logic unit may be programmed to increment the counter upon occurrences of a predetermined combination of the queue signals. The event conditioning logic unit may also be programmed to decrement the counter upon occurrences of an additional predetermined combination of the queue signals.

Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for measuring simultaneously and at randomly distributed intervals throughputs sets on one or more busses under test and displaying the percent occurrences of those throughputs sets in a graph as a density function. A method and system are also disclosed for simultaneously measuring throughput sets on one or more busses under test given that user specified stimuli are input into those busses and displaying those throughput sets in a graph as concurrency plots.

Abstract: Integrated counter-based instrumentation for generating a frequency distribution representation such as a histogram. An integrated circuit device includes an event counter to count a number of a predetermined type of events detected in each of a plurality of measurement periods during a first sub-experiment period. A frequency counter coupled to the event counter is to be incremented at the end of each measurement period if the number counted by the event counter meets a first test. A count stored in the frequency counter is provided to a frequency distribution data store at the end of the first sub-experiment period.