Abstract: A system for performing floating point arithmetic operations including an input register adapted for receiving an operand. The system also includes a mechanism for performing a shift or masking operation in response to determining that the operand is in an un-normalized format. The system also includes instructions for performing single precision incrementing of the operand in response to determining that the operand is single precision, that the operand requires the incrementing based on the results of a previous operation and that the previous operation did not perform the incrementing. The operand was created in the previous operation. The system further includes instructions for performing double precision incrementing of the operand in response to determining that the operand is double precision, that the operand requires the incrementing based on the results of the previous operation and that the previous operation did not perform the incrementing.

Abstract: A method and system for performing a binary mode and hexadecimal mode Multiply-Add floating point operation in a floating point arithmetic unit according to a formula A*C+B, wherein A, B and C operands each have a fraction and an exponent part expA, expB and expC and the exponent of the product A*C is calculated and compared to the exponent of the addend under inclusion of an exponent bias value dedicated to use unsigned biased exponents, wherein the comparison yields a shift amount used for aligning the addend with the product operand, wherein a shift amount calculation provides a common value CV for both binary and hexadecimal according to the formula (expA+expC?expB+CV).

Abstract: The invention provides a method of transmitting data via a bus system coupling a plurality of bus participants with an arbitration procedure for the plurality of bus participants. The invention further enables bus arbitration during a first transmission since that the bus can be granted for a second transmission following the first transmission without wasting bus cycles. This is accomplished by determining the number of cycles remaining for the first transmission according to memory boundary and transmission packet boundary conditions.

Abstract: The invention provides a method of transmitting data via a bus system coupling a plurality of bus participants with an arbitration procedure for the plurality of bus participants. The invention further enables bus arbitration during a first transmission since that the bus can be granted for a second transmission following the first transmission without wasting bus cycles. This is accomplished by determining the number of cycles remaining for the first transmission according to memory boundary and transmission packet boundary conditions.

Abstract: Arithmetic processing circuits in a circuit in a floating point processor having a fused multiply/ADD circuitry. In order to avoid waiting cycles in the normalizer of the floating point arithmetic, control logic calculates in an extremely early state of the overall Multiply/Add processing. Parts of the intermediate add result are significant and have to be selected in the pre-normalizer multiplexer to be fed to the normalizer by counting the leading zero bits (LZB) of the addend in a dedicated circuit right at the beginning of the pipe. LZB is added to the shift amount (SA) that is calculated to align the addend and is then compared with the width of the incrementer. If the sum of (SA+LZB) is larger than the width of the incrementer, which is a constant value, then no significant bits are in the high-part of the intermediate result, and the pre-normalizer multiplexer selects the data from a second predetermined position, otherwise from a first predetermined position.

Abstract: A process is provided for monitoring the conversion of numerical values from a first to a second format, where before and after the conversion, the modulo residue of the corresponding numerical value is calculated and compared with the corresponding residue after the conversion. In this way it is possible to effect error-free monitoring of such a conversion, especially of computer data, without great hardware expenditure.

Abstract: A system buffers first and second data buses having asynchronous, different frequency clocks. The system comprises a data buffer interposed between the first and second data buses to receive data from the first bus and supply data to the second bus. The also comprises a write address generator, coupled to the first bus to receive a data available signal and coupled to the data buffer, for generating an address in the data buffer to store the data received from the first bus. The data available signal increments the write address generator. A load record register is coupled to receive an indication that data is being written from the first data bus into the data buffer, and tracks locations in the data buffer which have received data from the first data bus. A read address generator is coupled to the data buffer, and generates an address of the next data, if any, that is stored in the data buffer to be read onto the second data bus.