Patents by Inventor Gregory Tierney

Gregory Tierney 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: 20050154836
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed that employ a pre-fetch buffer to provide data fills to a source processor in response to a request. A pre-fetch buffer retrieves data as a uncached data fill. The source processor processes the data in response to a source request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154805
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a multi-processor system with a processor having a processor pipeline that executes program instructions with data from speculative data fills that are provided in response to source requests. The multi-processor system may comprise a first cache that retains cache data associated with program instructions employing data from speculative data fills, and a second cache that retains cache data associated with data from speculative data fills that have been determined to be coherent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154863
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed that employ speculative source requests to obtain speculative data fills in response to a cache miss. In one embodiment, a source processor generates a speculative source request and a system source request in response to a cache miss. At least one processor provides a speculative data fill to a source processor in response to the speculative source request. The processor system provides a coherent data fill to the processor in response to the system source request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney, Stephen Van Doren
  • Publication number: 20050154832
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a multi-processor system including a processor that executes program instructions across at least one memory barrier. A request engine may provide an updated data fill corresponding to an invalid cache line. The invalid cache line may be associated with at least one executed load instruction. A load compare component may compare the invalid cache line to the updated data fill to evaluate the consistency of the at least one executed load instruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154834
    Abstract: One disclosed embodiment is a multi-processor system comprising a processor having a processor pipeline that executes program instructions with data from a speculative fill that is provided in response to a source request. The multi-processor system can further comprise a non-retired store cache that retains non-retired store data based on program instructions to store data into a data cache associated with the processor. The non-retired store data can be written to the data cache if data of a speculative fill associated with the non-retired store data is determined to be coherent. Other apparatus and methodologies are disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154833
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a multi-processor system comprising at least one data fill provided to a source processor in response to a source request by the source processor, and a coherent signal generated by the multi-processor system that provides an indication of which data fill of the at least one data fill is a coherent data fill.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney, Stephen Van Doren
  • Publication number: 20050154865
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a multi-processor system comprising a processor having a processor pipeline that executes program instructions with data from a speculative fill that is provided in response to a source request, and a backup system that retains information associated with a previous processor execution state corresponding to an instruction associated with the speculative fill. The backup system may initiate a backup of the processor pipeline to the previous processor execution state if the speculative fill is determined to be non-coherent, and the processor pipeline may continue execution of program instructions if the speculative fill is determined to be coherent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154866
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a processor having a processor pipeline that executes program instructions across at least one memory barrier with data from speculative data fills that are provided in response to source requests, and a log that retains executed load instruction entries associated with executed program instruction. The executed load instruction entries may be retired if a cache line associated with data of the speculative data fill has not been invalidated in an epoch that is different from the epoch in which the executed load instruction is executed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154835
    Abstract: Multi-processor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a multi-processor system with a processor having a processor pipeline that executes program instructions with data from speculative fills that are provided in response to source requests. The multi-processor system may comprise a first register file that retains register values associated with program instruction employing data from speculative fills, and a second register file that retains register values associated with data from speculative fills that have been determined to be coherent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050154831
    Abstract: Multiprocessor systems and methods are disclosed. One embodiment may comprise a plurality of processor cores. A given processor core may be operative to generate a request for desired data in response to a cache miss at a local cache. A shared cache structure may provide at least one speculative data fill and a coherent data fill of the desired data to at least one of the plurality of processor cores in response to a request from the at least one processor core. A processor scoreboard arbitrates the requests for the desired data. A speculative data fill of the desired data is provided to the at least one processor core. The coherent data fill of the desired data may be provided to the at least one processor core in a determined order.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2004
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Inventors: Simon Steely, Gregory Tierney