Abstract: In a low power consumption mode in which prior data is retained upon power shutdown, the return speed thereof is increased. While use of an existent data retaining flip-flop may be considered, this is not preferred since it increases area overhead such as enlargement of the size of a cell. A power line for data retention for power shutdown is formed with wirings finer than a usual main power line. Preferably, power lines for a data retention circuit are considered as signal lines and wired by automatic placing and mounting. For this purpose, terminals for the power line for data retention are previously designed by providing the terminals therefor for the cell in the same manner as in the existent signal lines. Additional layout for power lines is no longer necessary for the cell, which enables a decrease in the area and design by an existent placing and routing tool.

Abstract: When a leakage current of a circuit block under a non-use state is reduced by means of a power switch, frequent ON/OFF operations of the switch within a short time invite an increase of consumed power, on the contrary. Because a pre-heating time is necessary from turn-on of the switch till the circuit block becomes usable, control of the switch during an operation deteriorates a processing time of a semiconductor device. The switch is ON/OFF-controlled with a task duration time of a CPU core for controlling logic circuits and memory cores as a unit. After the switch is turned off, the switch is again turned on before termination of the task in consideration of the pre-heating time.

Abstract: There are provided a first processor (11) to be operated at a first operating frequency, a second processor (12) in which a leakage current is reduced more greatly than the first processor and which is operated at a lower second operating frequency than the first operating frequency, and a selecting portion (10) capable of selectively switching an executing destination of an application software into the first processor and the second processor corresponding to a demand operating speed of the application software. The first processor and the second processor can execute an identical instruction set, respectively. It is possible to carry out a high speed processing corresponding to the demand operating speed of the application software and to eliminate a dead current caused by a processing at a speed exceeding the demand operating speed of the application software.

Abstract: In a low power consumption mode in which prior data is retained upon power shutdown, the return speed thereof is increased. While use of an existent data retaining flip-flop may be considered, this is not preferred since it increases area overhead such as enlargement of the size of a cell. A power line for data retention for power shutdown is formed with wirings finer than a usual main power line. Preferably, power lines for a data retention circuit are considered as signal lines and wired by automatic placing and mounting. For this purpose, terminals for the power line for data retention are previously designed by providing the terminals therefor for the cell in the same manner as in the existent signal lines. Additional layout for power lines is no longer necessary for the cell, which enables a decrease in the area and design by an existent placing and routing tool.

Abstract: Multiprocessor system, having a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) in each processor, and having a structure for avoiding TLB purge overhead. Each processor node is provided with a partial main memory and a physical page map table (PPT). The PPT stores mapping between physical page number of main memory and virtual page number. Every memory access transaction for other node specifies physical address and virtual page number. Instead of strictly maintaining TLB coherency by broadcasting TLB purge transaction, an access destination node checks the coincidence between the virtual page number specified in the memory access transaction and the virtual page number mapped in the PPT when the transaction is received. If both are coincident, the memory access is executed. If not coincident, an error message is transferred to an access requesting source.

Abstract: A branch control memory store branch instructions which are adapted for optimizing performance of programs run on electronic processors. Flexible instruction parameter fields permit a variety of new branch control and branch instruction implementations best suited for a particular computing environment. These instructions also have separate prediction bits, which are used to optimize loading of target instruction buffers in advance of program execution, so that a pipeline within the processor achieves superior performance during actual program execution.

Abstract: A semiconductor device and the operation control method thereof are provided, which realize a highly generalized frequency control mechanism so as to allow a microprocessor to operate in lower power consumption, but with higher performance, without depending on the OS. It is arranged such that where the jobs are executed, they start at a lower frequency and if the execution of said jobs continues at the elapse of the time as predetermined, they are automatically executed at a higher frequency.

Abstract: An information processing system that can reduce its power consumption by means of robust power controlling even upon occurrence of an interruption/exception processing. If it is found that there is no task set in the ready state as a result of watching the number of tasks set in the ready state by the RTOS or ready state watching task, the system controls the RTOS or ready state watching task so as to lower the power while the current active task controls the power according to the preset WCET of each application slice. On the contrary, if there is any task set in the ready state, the system controls so as to raise the power and the current active task comes to control the power according to the virtual WCET that is earlier than the WCET of each application slice. And, if there is no task set in the ready state and there is no current active task, the system controls so that the RTOS or both of the ready state watching task and sleep task lower the power.

Abstract: The present invention provides a hardware accelerator, which allows faster switching between processing modes. In an information processing device with a bytecode accelerator BCA for translating a stack-based intermediate code (bytecode) into register-based instructions, a selector SEL for switching between BCA and soft VM is posed between an instruction part FET and a decode part DEC and data transfer paths P4 and P5 are formed between BCA and the register file REG_FILE. When bytecode accelerator BCA is activated, the P3 side is selected by the selector SEL and the translated CPU instructions are transferred to the decode part DEC. If the intermediate language code cannot be translated by the BCA, the processing mode is switched to software processing. During switching between the modes, internal information of BCA can be transferred between BCA and REG_FILE in parallel, achieving faster mode switching.

Abstract: When a leakage current of a circuit block under a non-use state is reduced by means of a power switch, frequent ON/OFF operations of the switch within a short time invite an increase of consumed power, on the contrary. Because a pre-heating time is necessary from turn-on of the switch till the circuit block becomes usable, control of the switch during an operation deteriorates a processing time of a semiconductor device. The switch is ON/OFF-controlled with a task duration time of a CPU core for controlling logic circuits and memory cores as a unit. After the switch is turned off, the switch is again turned on before termination of the task in consideration of the pre-heating time.

Abstract: In a low power consumption mode in which prior data is retained upon power shutdown, the return speed thereof is increased. While use of an existent data retaining flip-flop may be considered, this is not preferred since it increases area overhead such as enlargement of the size of a cell. A power line for data retention for power shutdown is formed with wirings finer than a usual main power line. Preferably, power lines for a data retention circuit are considered as signal lines and wired by automatic placing and mounting. For this purpose, terminals for the power line for data retention are previously designed by providing the terminals therefor for the cell in the same manner as in the existent signal lines. Additional layout for power lines is no longer necessary for the cell, which enables a decrease in the area and design by an existent placing and routing tool.

Abstract: A bytecode accelerator which translates stack-based intermediate language (bytecodes) into register-based CPU instructions transfers plural pieces of internal information from a register file of a CPU to the bytecode accelerator by means of an internal transfer bus between the bytecode accelerator-and the CPU and an input selection logic of the bytecode accelerator when the bytecode accelerator is started and transfers plural pieces of internal information in the bytecode accelerator to the register file of the CPU by means of the internal transfer bus, an output selector and an output selector selection logic of the bytecode accelerator when the bytecode accelerator ends its operation in transition between hardware processing and software processing by software virtual machine.

Abstract: An interrupt notification network is provided for a multiprocessor system in which many processor units are installed. An interrupt notification source processor unit transmits an interrupt notification packet to an interrupt notification destination processor unit. The interrupt notification packet to be transmitted by the interrupt notification source processor unit contains an interrupt destination process ID. A control section for the interrupt notification network analyzes the transmitted interrupt notification packet, references a table that defines the correspondence between internally retained IDs of processes and processor units that perform the processes, determines the interrupt notification destination processor unit, and transmits the interrupt notification packet to the processor unit.

Abstract: When a leakage current of a circuit block under a non-use state is reduced by means of a power switch, frequent ON/OFF operations of the switch within a short time invite an increase of consumed power, on the contrary. Because a pre-heating time is necessary from turn-on of the switch till the circuit block becomes usable, control of the switch during an operation deteriorates a processing time of a semiconductor device. The switch is ON/OFF-controlled with a task duration time of a CPU core for controlling logic circuits and memory cores as a unit. After the switch is turned off, the switch is again turned on before termination of the task in consideration of the pre-heating time.

Abstract: In a low power consumption mode in which prior data is retained upon power shutdown, the return speed thereof is increased. While use of an existent data retaining flip-flop may be considered, this is not preferred since it increases area overhead such as enlargement of the size of a cell. A power line for data retention for power shutdown is formed with wirings finer than a usual main power line. Preferably, power lines for a data retention circuit are considered as signal lines and wired by automatic placing and mounting. For this purpose, terminals for the power line for data retention are previously designed by providing the terminals therefor for the cell in the same manner as in the existent signal lines. Additional layout for power lines is no longer necessary for the cell, which enables a decrease in the area and design by an existent placing and routing tool.

Abstract: The object of the invention is to enable the appropriate change of a path according to a situation at that time of a user himself/herself and a situation of a target store and the path without having a special terminal when the user of facilities utilizes the target store and to perform appropriate guidance. To achieve the object, first, plural spatial recognition nodes respectively provided with a sensor and information processing equipment are installed in each location in the facilities and are connected via a network. The node recognizes the position, the action and the behavior of a user of the facilities, a server that controls a system manages the result of recognition and constantly grasp the situation of the user. Besides, the situation of the user is recognized by the node installed at a destination and on a path and is similarly notified to the server.

Abstract: An information processing system that can reduce its power consumption by means of robust power controlling even upon occurrence of an interruption/exception processing. If it is found that there is no task set in the ready state as a result of watching the number of tasks set in the ready state by the RTOS or ready state watching task, the system controls the RTOS or ready state watching task so as to lower the power while the current active task controls the power according to the preset WCET of each application slice. On the contrary, if there is any task set in the ready state, the system controls so as to raise the power and the current active task comes to control the power according to the virtual WCET that is earlier than the WCET of each application slice. And, if there is no task set in the ready state and there is no current active task, the system controls so that the RTOS or both of the ready state watching task and sleep task lower the power.

Abstract: In a low power consumption mode in which prior data is retained upon power shutdown, the return speed thereof is increased. While use of an existent data retaining flip-flop may be considered, this is not preferred since it increases area overhead such as enlargement of the size of a cell. A power line for data retention for power shutdown is formed with wirings finer than a usual main power line. Preferably, power lines for a data retention circuit are considered as signal lines and wired by automatic placing and mounting. For this purpose, terminals for the power line for data retention are previously designed by providing the terminals therefor for the cell in the same manner as in the existent signal lines. Additional layout for power lines is no longer necessary for the cell, which enables a decrease in the area and design by an existent placing and routing tool.

Abstract: Disclosed here is an information processing system capable of recognizing actions and circumstances of a user with respect to both space and time as a “situation” to recognize the user's request using a plurality of sensing nodes that work cooperatively with each another, thereby responding autonomously to the user's request according to the recognition results. The plurality of sensing nodes and a responding device are disposed in a target space to build up a network for recognizing the situation in the target space. And, a plurality of recognition means are used to recognize the situation with respect to both space and time related to the existence of the user. And, an integral processing portion (master) is selected from among the plurality of sensing nodes, thereby dispersing the system load. If there are a plurality of users, the system can make recognition in accordance with the request of each of those users.

Abstract: A hardware accelerator is used to execute a floating-point byte-code in an information processing device. For a floating-point byte-code, a byte-code accelerator BCA feeds an instruction stream for using a FPU to a CPU. When the FPU is used, first the data is transferred to the FPU register from a general-purpose register, and then an FPU operation is performed. For data, such as a denormalized number, that cannot be processed by the FPU, in order to call a floating-point math library of software, the processing of the BCA is completed and the processing moves to processing by software. In order to realize this, data on a data transfer bus from the CPU to the FPU is snooped by the hardware accelerator, and a cancel request is signaled to the CPU to inhibit execution of the FPU operation when 4corresponding data is detected in a data checking part.