Abstract: In accordance with at least some embodiments, a system includes a processing entity configured to run multiple threads. The system also includes a direct memory access (DMA) engine coupled to the processing entity, the DMA engine being configured to track DMA in-flight status information for each of a plurality of DMA channels. The processing entity is configured to manage overlapping DMA requests to a DMA channel of the DMA engine based on said DMA in-flight status information.

Abstract: In accordance with at least some embodiments, a system includes a processing entity configured to run multiple threads. The system also includes a direct memory access (DMA) engine coupled to the processing entity, the DMA engine being configured to track DMA in-flight status information for each of a plurality of DMA channels. The processing entity is configured to manage overlapping DMA requests to a DMA channel of the DMA engine based on said DMA in-flight status information.

Abstract: A new mechanism submits multiple DMA requests that are becoming more common in the newer video codec standards. This feature improves system performance and allows bus accesses to be more efficient. An artificial burst is created by aggregating multiple requests which normally would be distributed to be more localized in time, thus creating a burst of traffic.

Abstract: The solution proposed in this invention is a nearest neighborhood access protocol, where not every processor is given access to every other memory block. It is shown by analyzing the pipeline that it is adequate to have no more than two masters (CPU's) in particular and 3 CPU's in general. In the case of the 2 CPU approach one of these CPU's is a producer, and the other CPU is a consumer. In the 3 CPU case the third owner may be a DMA channel.

Abstract: A data processing system is provided with a digital signal processor which has an instruction for expanding one bit to form a mask field. In one form of the instruction, a first bit from a two-bit mask in a source operand is replicated and placed in an least significant half word of a destination operand while a second bit from the two-bit mask in the source operand is replicated and placed in a most significant half word of the destination operand. In another form of the instruction, a first bit from a four bit mask in a source operand is replicated and placed in a least significant byte of a destination operand, a second bit from the four-bit mask in the source operand is replicated and placed in a second least significant byte of the destination operand, a third bit from the four-bit mask is replicated and placed in a second most significant byte of the destination operand and a fourth bit form the four-bit mask is replicated and placed in a most significant byte of the destination operand.

Abstract: A data processing system having a central processing (CPU) unit and a method of operation is provided. The CPU has an instruction set architecture that is optimized for intensive numeric algorithm processing. The CPU has dual load/store units connected to dual memory target ports of a memory controller. The CPU can execute two aligned data transfers each having a length of one byte, two bytes, four bytes, or eight bytes in parallel by executing two load/store instructions. The CPU can also execute a single non-aligned data transfer having a length of four bytes or eight bytes by executing a non-aligned load/store instruction that utilizes both memory target ports. A data transfer address for each load/store instruction is formed by fetching the instruction, decoding the instruction to determine instruction type, transfer data size, and scaling selection, selectively scaling an offset provided by the instruction and combining the selectively scaled offset with a base address value.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes a three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. Data registers (200) store the three data inputs and the arithmetic logic unit output. The second input signal comes from a controllable barrel rotator (235). The rotate amount is a default rotate amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the barrel rotator (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the rotate amount. The output of the barrel rotator (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. In the preferred embodiment of this invention, the three input arithmetic logic unit (230) is embodied in a data processor circuits as a part of a multiprocessor integrated circuit (100) used in image processing.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes a three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. Data registers (200) store the three data inputs and the arithmetic logic unit output. The second input signal comes from a controllable shifter (235). The shift amount is a default shift amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the shifter (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the shift amount. The output of the shifter (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. The third input signal comes from a multiplexer (233) that selects between an instruction specified immediate field, data recalled from a data register or a mask input from a mask generator (239).

Abstract: A data processing apparatus employs write priority to permit a data processing apparatus to execute an if, then, else operation in a single instruction cycle. The data processing apparatus includes pipelined data unit (110) and address unit (120) operations. The address unit (120) data move operation has a higher write priority than the storing of the data unit (110) operation. The data unit (110) includes an arithmetic logic unit (230) that performs an unconditional operation with the result to be stored in a destination register (200). The address unit (120) sets the address for a data move operation to the same destination register (200). The data move operation is conditional upon the if condition set by the instruction and based upon a set of status bits in a status register (210). The status register (210) includes a plurality of status bits set corresponding to a prior arithmetic logic unit (230) result.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes a three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a Boolean combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. The arithmetic logic unit is capable of forming all possible Boolean combinations of the three inputs. Data registers (200) store the three data inputs and the arithmetic logic unit output. The second input signal comes from a controllable shifter (235). The shift amount is a default shift amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the shifter (235) to supply an N bit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the shift amount. The output of the shifter (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes a three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. Data registers (200) store the three data inputs and the arithmetic logic unit output. The second input signal optionally comes from a controllable shifter (235). The shift amount is a default shift amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the shifter (235) to supply an N bit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the shift amount. The output of the shifter (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. The third input signal optionally comes from a multiplexer (233) that selects between an instruction specified immediate field, data recalled from a data register or a mask input from a mask generator (239).

Abstract: A three input arithmetic logic unit (230) generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. The second input signal comes from a controllable shifter (235). The shift amount is a default shift amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the shifter (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the shift amount. The output of the shift (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. The third input signal comes from a multiplexer (233) that selects between an instruction specified immediate field, data recalled from a data register or a mask input from a mask generator (239). One preferred form of the mask has a number of right justified 1's corresponding to a mask input signal.

Abstract: A three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. The second input signal comes from a controllable barrel rotator (235). The rotate amount is a default rotate amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the barrel rotator (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the rotate amount. The output of the barrel rotator (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. The third input signal comes from a multiplexer (233) that selects between an instruction specified immediate field, data recalled from a data register or a mask input from a mask generator (239). One preferred form of the mask has a number of right justified 1's corresponding to a mask input signal.

Abstract: A multi-processing system includes a plurality of memories and a plurality of processors. Each of the memories has a unique addressable memory portion of a single memory address space. Each processors has a predetermined plurality of corresponding memories. These corresponding memories have a corresponding base address within said single memory address space The processors generate addresses for read/write access to data stored within said plurality of memories in accordance with received instructions. A switch matrix connected to the memories and the processors responds to an address generated by a processor to selectively route data between that processor and a memories whose unique addressable memory portion encompasses that address. A base address instruction executing on any one of the processors generates the base address corresponding to that processor.

Abstract: Conditional hardware branching employs zero overhead loop logic and writing to a loop count register within a program loop. The zero overhead loop logic includes a program counter (701), loop end registers (711, 712, 713), loop start registers (721, 722, 723), loop counter registers (731, 732, 733), comparators (715, 716, 717) and loop priority logic (725). Normally the program counter (701) is incremented each cycle. The comparators (715, 716, 717) compare the address stored in the program counter (701) with respective loop end registers (711, 712, 713). If the address in the program counter (701) equals a loop end address, loop priority logic (725) decrements the loop count register and loads the program counter with the loop start address in loop start register. Hardware looping involves loading a loop count register during program loop operation.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes a three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. Data registers (200) store the three data inputs and the arithmetic logic unit output. The second input signal comes from a controllable shifter (235). The shifter could be a left barrel rotator with wrap around or a controllable left/right shifter. The shift amount is a default shift amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the shifter (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being a left shift amount. The output of the shifter (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result.

Abstract: A data processor includes both integer and floating point operation units and operates as a reduced instruction set computer (RISC). A modification of the normal load/store RISC operations includes within in its instruction set some instructions that permit floating point operations to be paired with load or store operations. These operations include: vector floating point add; vector multiply accumulate; vector floating point multiply; vector multiply subtract; vector reverse subtract; vector round floating point input; vector round integer input; and vector floating point subtract.

Abstract: An arithmetic logic unit (230) may be divided into a plurality of independent sections (301, 302, 303, 340). A bit zero of carry status signal corresponding to each section that is stored in a flags register (211), which preferably includes more bits than the maximum number of sections of the arithmetic logic unit (230). New status signals may overwrite the previous status signals or rotate the stored bits and store the new status signals. A status register (210) stores a size indicator that determines the a number of sections of the arithmetic logic unit (230). A status detector has a zero detector (321, 322, 323, 324) for each elementary section (301, 302, 303, 304) of the arithmetic logic unit (230). When there are fewer than the maximum number of sections, these zero signals are ANDed (331, 332, 341). A multiplexer couples the carry-out of an elementary (311, 312, 313, 314) to the carry-in of an adjacent elementary section (301, 302, 303, 304) or not depending on the selected number of sections.

Abstract: A three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. The second input signal comes from a controllable barrel rotator (235). The rotate amount is a default rotate amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the barrel rotator (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the rotate amount. The output of the barrel rotator (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. The third input signal comes from a multiplexer (233) that selects between an instruction specified immediate field, data recalled from a data register or a mask input from a mask generator (239). One preferred form of the mask has a number of right justified 1's corresponding to a mask input signal.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes a three input arithmetic logic unit (230) that generates a combination of the three inputs that is selected by a function signal. Data registers (200) store the three data inputs and the arithmetic logic unit output. The second input signal comes from a controllable barrel rotator (235). The rotate amount is a default rotate amount stored in a special data register, a predetermined set of bits of data recalled from a data register or zero. A one's constant source (236) is connected to the barrel rotator (235) to supply a multibit digital signal of "1". This permits generating a second input signal of the form 2.sup.N, with N being the rotate amount. The output of the barrel rotator (235) may be stored independently of the arithmetic logic unit (230) result. A controllable shifter is an alternative to the barrel rotator (235).