Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to data synchronization barrier operations. A system includes a first processor that may receive a data barrier operation request from a second processor include in the system. Based on receiving that data barrier operation request from the second processor, the first processor may ensure that outstanding load/store operations executed by the first processor that are directed to addresses outside of an exclusion region have been completed. The first processor may respond to the second processor that the data barrier operation request is complete at the first processor, even in the case that one or more load/store operations that are directed to addresses within the exclusion region are outstanding and not complete when the first processor responds that the data barrier operation request is complete.

Abstract: An interrupt delivery mechanism for a system includes and interrupt controller and a plurality of cluster interrupt controllers coupled to respective pluralities of processors in an embodiment. The interrupt controller may serially transmit an interrupt request to respective cluster interrupt controllers, which may acknowledge (Ack) or non-acknowledge (Nack) the interrupt based on attempting to deliver the interrupt to processors to which the cluster interrupt controller is coupled. In a soft iteration, the cluster interrupt controller may attempt to deliver the interrupt to processors that are powered on, without attempting to power on processors that are powered off. If the soft iteration does not result in an Ack response from one of the plurality of cluster interrupt controllers, a hard iteration may be performed in which the powered-off processors may be powered on.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to data synchronization barrier operations. A system includes a first processor that may receive a data barrier operation request from a second processor include in the system. Based on receiving that data barrier operation request from the second processor, the first processor may ensure that outstanding load/store operations executed by the first processor that are directed to addresses outside of an exclusion region have been completed. The first processor may respond to the second processor that the data barrier operation request is complete at the first processor, even in the case that one or more load/store operations that are directed to addresses within the exclusion region are outstanding and not complete when the first processor responds that the data barrier operation request is complete.

Abstract: An interrupt delivery mechanism for a system includes and interrupt controller and a plurality of cluster interrupt controllers coupled to respective pluralities of processors in an embodiment. The interrupt controller may serially transmit an interrupt request to respective cluster interrupt controllers, which may acknowledge (Ack) or non-acknowledge (Nack) the interrupt based on attempting to deliver the interrupt to processors to which the cluster interrupt controller is coupled. In a soft iteration, the cluster interrupt controller may attempt to deliver the interrupt to processors that are powered on, without attempting to power on processors that are powered off. If the soft iteration does not result in an Ack response from one of the plurality of cluster interrupt controllers, a hard iteration may be performed in which the powered-off processors may be powered on.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for efficient handling of subroutine epilogues. When an indirect control transfer instruction corresponding to a procedure return for a subroutine is identified, the return address and a signature are retrieved from one or more of a return address stack and the memory stack. An authenticator generates a signature based on at least a portion of the retrieved return address. While the signature is being generated, instruction processing speculatively continues. No instructions are permitted to commit yet. The generated signature is later compared to a copy of the signature generated earlier during the corresponding procedure call. A mismatch causes an exception.

Abstract: An interrupt delivery mechanism for a system includes and interrupt controller and a plurality of cluster interrupt controllers coupled to respective pluralities of processors in an embodiment. The interrupt controller may serially transmit an interrupt request to respective cluster interrupt controllers, which may acknowledge (Ack) or non-acknowledge (Nack) the interrupt based on attempting to deliver the interrupt to processors to which the cluster interrupt controller is coupled. In a soft iteration, the cluster interrupt controller may attempt to deliver the interrupt to processors that are powered on, without attempting to power on processors that are powered off. If the soft iteration does not result in an Ack response from one of the plurality of cluster interrupt controllers, a hard iteration may be performed in which the powered-off processors may be powered on.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to data synchronization barrier operations. A system includes a first processor that may receive a data barrier operation request from a second processor include in the system. Based on receiving that data barrier operation request from the second processor, the first processor may ensure that outstanding load/store operations executed by the first processor that are directed to addresses outside of an exclusion region have been completed. The first processor may respond to the second processor that the data barrier operation request is complete at the first processor, even in the case that one or more load/store operations that are directed to addresses within the exclusion region are outstanding and not complete when the first processor responds that the data barrier operation request is complete.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a physical register last reference scheme are described. A system includes a processor with a mapper, history file, and freelist. When an entry in the mapper is updated with a new architectural register-to-physical register mapping, the processor creates a new history file entry for the given instruction that caused the update. The processor also searches the mapper to determine if the old physical register that was previously stored in the mapper entry is referenced by any other mapper entries. If there are no other mapper entries that reference this old physical register, then a last reference indicator is stored in the new history file entry. When the given instruction retires, the processor checks the last reference indicator in the history file entry to determine whether the old physical register can be returned to the freelist of available physical registers.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for retaining architected state for relatively frequent switching between sleep and active operating states are described. A processor receives an indication to transition from an active state to a sleep state. The processor stores a copy of a first subset of the architected state information in on-die storage elements capable of retaining storage after power is turned off. The processor supports programmable input/output (PIO) access of particular stored information during the sleep state. When a wakeup event is detected, circuitry within the processor is powered up again. A boot sequence and recovery of architected state from off-chip memory are not performed. Rather than fetch from a memory location pointed to by a reset base address register, the processor instead fetches an instruction from a memory location pointed to by a restored program counter of the retained subset of the architected state information.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a physical register last reference scheme are described. A system includes a processor with a mapper, history file, and freelist. When an entry in the mapper is updated with a new architectural register-to-physical register mapping, the processor creates a new history file entry for the given instruction that caused the update. The processor also searches the mapper to determine if the old physical register that was previously stored in the mapper entry is referenced by any other mapper entries. If there are no other mapper entries that reference this old physical register, then a last reference indicator is stored in the new history file entry. When the given instruction retires, the processor checks the last reference indicator in the history file entry to determine whether the old physical register can be returned to the freelist of available physical registers.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to speculative writes to special-purpose registers (SPRs). In some embodiments, the disclosed techniques may reduce or avoid system instruction stalls while waiting for SPR writes, which may improve processor performance. In some embodiments, a processor includes a first storage element configured to store a non-speculative value of a special-purpose register and speculative storage circuitry configured to store one or more speculative values of the special-purpose register based on one or more speculatively-performed writes to the special-purpose register. In some embodiments, the processor includes control circuitry configured to: propagate the non-speculative value of the special-purpose register to control other circuitry and provide a youngest speculative value of the special-purpose register in the speculative storage circuitry as a speculative read of the special-purpose register.

Abstract: A system and method for efficiently reducing the latency and power of memory access operations. A processor includes a stack pointer (SP) load-store dependence (LSD) predictor which predicts whether a memory dependence exists on a store instruction. The processor also includes a register file (RF) LSD predictor which predicts whether a memory dependence exists on a store instruction or a load instruction by a subsequent load instruction in program order. Each of the SP-LSD predictor and the RF-LSD predictor predicts and performs register renaming in a pipeline stage earlier than a renaming pipeline stage. The RF-LSD predictor also determines whether any intervening instructions between a producer memory instruction and a consumer memory instruction modify a predicted dependence.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an integrated circuit may include one or more processors. Each processor may include multiple processor cores, and each core has a different design/implementation and performance level. For example, a core may be implemented for high performance, and another core may be implemented at a lower maximum performance, but may be optimized for efficiency. Additionally, in some embodiments, some features of the instruction set architecture implemented by the processor may be implemented in only one of the cores that make up the processor. If such a feature is invoked by a code sequence while a different core is active, the processor may swap cores to the core the implements the feature. Alternatively, an exception may be taken and an exception handler may be executed to identify the feature and activate the corresponding core.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for retaining architected state for relatively frequent switching between sleep and active operating states are described. A processor receives an indication to transition from an active state to a sleep state. The processor stores a copy of a first subset of the architected state information in on-die storage elements capable of retaining storage after power is turned off. The processor supports programmable input/output (PIO) access of particular stored information during the sleep state. When a wakeup event is detected, circuitry within the processor is powered up again. A boot sequence and recovery of architected state from off-chip memory are not performed. Rather than fetch from a memory location pointed to by a reset base address register, the processor instead fetches an instruction from a memory location pointed to by a restored program counter of the retained subset of the architected state information.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an integrated circuit may include one or more processors. Each processor may include multiple processor cores, and each core has a different design/implementation and performance level. For example, a core may be implemented for high performance, and another core may be implemented at a lower maximum performance, but may be optimized for efficiency. Additionally, in some embodiments, some features of the instruction set architecture implemented by the processor may be implemented in only one of the cores that make up the processor. If such a feature is invoked by a code sequence while a different core is active, the processor may swap cores to the core the implements the feature. Alternatively, an exception may be taken and an exception handler may be executed to identify the feature and activate the corresponding core.

Abstract: A processor includes an instruction issue circuit, and high-utilization and low-utilization execution unit circuits coupled to execute instructions received from the instruction issue unit. On average, utilization of the low-utilization execution unit circuit is lower than utilization of the high-utilization execution unit circuit. The processor also includes a retention circuit coupled to a different power domain than the low-utilization execution unit circuit, and a power management circuit.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an integrated circuit may include one or more processors. Each processor may include multiple processor cores, and each core has a different design/implementation and performance level. For example, a core may be implemented for high performance, and another core may be implemented at a lower maximum performance, but may be optimized for efficiency. Additionally, in some embodiments, some features of the instruction set architecture implemented by the processor may be implemented in only one of the cores that make up the processor. If such a feature is invoked by a code sequence while a different core is active, the processor may swap cores to the core the implements the feature. Alternatively, an exception may be taken and an exception handler may be executed to identify the feature and activate the corresponding core.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to capturing information related to instructions executing on in a processor. In one embodiment, an integrated circuit is disclosed that includes an execution pipeline configured to execute a sequence of instructions. The integrated circuit includes monitoring circuitry configured to monitor the execution pipeline for occurrences of an event associated with the sequence of instructions, and in response to detecting a particular number of occurrences of the event, capture a value of a program counter corresponding to an instruction of the sequence of instructions that is associated with an occurrence of the event. The monitoring circuitry stores the captured value of the program counter in a distinct capture register and signals an interrupt indicating that the captured value of the program counter is retrievable from the capture register. In some embodiments, a debugging application may retrieve the value and present it to a developer attempting perform code profiling.

Abstract: A system and method for efficiently indicating branch target addresses. A semiconductor chip predecodes instructions of a computer program prior to installing the instructions in an instruction cache. In response to determining a particular instruction is a control flow instruction with a displacement relative to a program counter address (PC), the chip replaces a portion of the PC relative displacement in the particular instruction with a subset of a target address. The subset of the target address is an untranslated physical subset of the full target address. When the recoded particular instruction is fetched and decoded, the remaining portion of the PC relative displacement is added to a virtual portion of the PC used to fetch the particular instruction. The result is concatenated with the portion of the target address embedded in the fetched particular instruction to form a full target address.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an integrated circuit may include one or more processors. Each processor may include multiple processor cores, and each core has a different design/implementation and performance level. The processor may support multiple processor states (PStates). Each PState may specify an operating point (e.g. a combination of supply voltage magnitude and clock frequency), and each PState may be mapped to one of the processor cores. During operation, one of the cores is active: the core to which the current PState is mapped. If a new PState is selected and is mapped to a different core, the processor may automatically context switch the processor state to the newly-selected core and may begin execution on that core. The context switch may be performed using a special purpose register (SPR) interconnect. Each processor core in a given processor may be coupled to the SPR interconnect to permit access to the external SPRs.