Patents by Inventor Steve Shih-wei Liao

Steve Shih-wei Liao 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).

  • Patent number: 8719806
    Abstract: The latencies associated with retrieving instruction information for a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform instruction prefetch and/or trace pre-build for the main thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Tor M. Aamodt, Pedro Marcuello, Jared W. Stark, IV, John P. Shen, Antonio Gonzalez, Per Hammarlund, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Perry H. Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Patent number: 8522220
    Abstract: The latencies associated with cache misses or other long-latency instructions in a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform a memory prefetch for the main thread. The instructions for the helper thread are dynamically incorporated into the main thread binary during post-pass operation of a compiler.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang, Hong Wang, Geolf F. Hoflehner, Daniel M. Lavery, John P. Shen
  • Patent number: 8095920
    Abstract: The latencies associated with cache misses or other long-latency instructions in a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform a memory prefetch for the main thread. The instructions for the helper thread are dynamically incorporated into the main thread binary during post-pass operation of a compiler.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang, Hong Wang, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Daniel M. Lavery, John P. Shen
  • Patent number: 8078831
    Abstract: Apparatus, system and methods are provided for performing speculative data prefetching in a chip multiprocessor (CMP). Data is prefetched by a helper thread that runs on one core of the CMP while a main program runs concurrently on another core of the CMP. Data prefetched by the helper thread is provided to the helper core. For one embodiment, the data prefetched by the helper thread is pushed to the main core. It may or may not be provided to the helper core as well. A push of prefetched data to the main core may occur during a broadcast of the data to all cores of an affinity group. For at least one other embodiment, the data prefetched by a helper thread is provided, upon request from the main core, to the main core from the helper core's local cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Perry H. Wang, Jeffery A. Brown, Per Hammarlund, George Z. Chrysos, Doron Orenstein, Steve Shih-wei Liao, John P. Shen
  • Publication number: 20110067011
    Abstract: In one embodiment a thread management method identifies in a main program a set of instructions that can be dynamically activated as speculative precomputation threads. A wait/sleep operation is performed on the speculative precomputation threads between thread creation and activation, and progress of non-speculative threads is gauged through monitoring a set of global variables, allowing the speculative precomputation threads to determine its relative progress with respect to non-speculative threads.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2010
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Perry H. Wang, Ross David Weldon, Scott M. Ettinger, Hideki Saito, Milind B. Girkar, Steve Shih-wei Liao, Mohammad R. Haghighat, Xinmin Tian, John P. Shen, Oren Gershon
  • Publication number: 20110035555
    Abstract: Apparatus, system and methods are provided for performing speculative data prefetching in a chip multiprocessor (CMP). Data is prefetched by a helper thread that runs on one core of the CMP while a main program runs concurrently on another core of the CMP. Data prefetched by the helper thread is provided to the helper core. For one embodiment, the data prefetched by the helper thread is pushed to the main core. It may or may not be provided to the helper core as well. A push of prefetched data to the main core may occur during a broadcast of the data to all cores of an affinity group. For at least one other embodiment, the data prefetched by a helper thread is provided, upon request from the main core, to the main core from the helper core's local cache.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2010
    Publication date: February 10, 2011
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Perry H. Wang, Jeffery A. Brown, Per Hammarlund, George Z. Chrysos, Doron Orenstein, Steve Shih-wei Liao, John P. Shen
  • Publication number: 20100332811
    Abstract: The latencies associated with retrieving instruction information for a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform instruction prefetch and/or trace pre-build for the main thread.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Publication date: December 30, 2010
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Tor M. Aamodt, Pedro Marcuello, Jared W. Stark, IV, John P. Shen, Antonio Gonzalez, Per Hammarlund, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Perry H. Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Patent number: 7844801
    Abstract: Apparatus, system and methods are provided for performing speculative data prefetching in a chip multiprocessor (CMP). Data is prefetched by a helper thread that runs on one core of the CMP while a main program runs concurrently on another core of the CMP. Data prefetched by the helper thread is provided to the helper core. For one embodiment, the data prefetched by the helper thread is pushed to the main core. It may or may not be provided to the helper core as well. A push of prefetched data to the main core may occur during a broadcast of the data to all cores of an affinity group. For at least one other embodiment, the data prefetched by a helper thread is provided, upon request from the main core, to the main core from the helper core's local cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Perry H. Wang, Jeffery A. Brown, Per Hammarlund, George Z. Chrysos, Doron Orenstein, Steve Shih-wei Liao, John P. Shen
  • Patent number: 7818547
    Abstract: Embodiments of an apparatus, system and method enhance the efficiency of processor resource utilization during instruction prefetching via one or more speculative threads. Renamer logic and a map table are utilized to perform filtering of instructions in a speculative thread instruction stream. The map table includes a yes-a-thing bit to indicate whether the associated physical register's content reflects the value that would be computed by the main thread. A thread progress beacon table is utilized to track relative progress of a main thread and a speculative helper thread. Based upon information in the thread progress beacon table, the main thread may effect termination of a helper thread that is not likely to provide a performance benefit for the main thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2010
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Tor M. Aamodt, Hong Wang, Per Hammarlund, John P. Shen, Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang
  • Patent number: 7814469
    Abstract: The latencies associated with retrieving instruction information for a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform instruction prefetch and/or trace pre-build for the main thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2010
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Tor M. Aamodt, Pedro Marcuello, Jared W. Stark, IV, John P. Shen, Antonio González, Per Hammarlund, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Perry H. Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Publication number: 20100211940
    Abstract: The latencies associated with cache misses or other long-latency instructions in a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform a memory prefetch for the main thread. The instructions for the helper thread are dynamically incorporated into the main thread binary during post-pass operation of a compiler.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2010
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Inventors: Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang, Hong Wang, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Daniel M. Lavery, John P. Shen
  • Patent number: 7657880
    Abstract: The latencies associated with retrieving instruction information for a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is permitted to execute Store instructions. Store blocker logic operates to prevent data associated with a Store instruction in a helper thread from being committed to memory. Dependence blocker logic operates to prevent data associated with a Store instruction in a speculative helper thread from being bypassed to a Load instruction in a non-speculative thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Tor Aamodt, Per Hammarlund, John Shen, Xinmin Tian, Milind Girkar, Perry Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Patent number: 7631307
    Abstract: A virtual multithreading hardware mechanism provides multi-threading on a single-threaded processor. Thread switches are triggered by user-defined triggers. Synchronous triggers may be defined in the form of special trigger instructions. Asynchronous triggers may be defined via special marking instructions that identify an asynchronous trigger condition. The asynchronous trigger condition may be based on a plurality of atomic processor events. Minimal context information, such as only an instruction pointer address, is maintained by the hardware upon a thread switch. In contrast to traditional simultaneous multithreading schemes, the virtual multithreading hardware provides thread switches that are transparent to an operating system and that may be performed without operating system intervention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Perry H. Wang, Hong Wang, John P. Shen, Ashok N. Seshadri, Anthony N. Mah, William R. Greene, Ravi K. Chandran, Piyush Desai, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Publication number: 20080215861
    Abstract: Embodiments of an apparatus, system and method enhance the efficiency of processor resource utilization during instruction prefetching via one or more speculative threads. Renamer logic and a map table are utilized to perform filtering of instructions in a speculative thread instruction stream. The map table includes a yes-a-thing bit to indicate whether the associated physical register's content reflects the value that would be computed by the main thread. A thread progress beacon table is utilized to track relative progress of a main thread and a speculative helper thread. Based upon information in the thread progress beacon table, the main thread may effect termination of a helper thread that is not likely to provide a performance benefit for the main thread.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2008
    Publication date: September 4, 2008
    Inventors: Tor M. Aamodt, Hong Wang, Per Hammarlund, John P. Shen, Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang
  • Patent number: 7404067
    Abstract: Embodiments of an apparatus, system and method enhance the efficiency of processor resource utilization during instruction prefetching via one or more speculative threads. Renamer logic and a map table are utilized to perform filtering of instructions in a speculative thread instruction stream. The map table includes a yes-a-thing bit to indicate whether the associated physical register's content reflects the value that would be computed by the main thread. A thread progress beacon table is utilized to track relative progress of a main thread and a speculative helper thread. Based upon information in the thread progress beacon table, the main thread may effect termination of a helper thread that is not likely to provide a performance benefit for the main thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2008
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Tor M. Aamodt, Hong Wang, Per Hammarlund, John P. Shen, Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang
  • Publication number: 20040154010
    Abstract: A method for generating instructions to facilitate control-quasi-independent-point multithreading is provided. A spawn point and control-quasi-independent-point are determined. An instruction stream is generated to partition a program so that portions of the program are parallelized by speculative threads. A method of performing control-quasi-independent-point guided speculative multithreading includes spawning a speculative thread when the spawn point is encountered. An embodiment of the method further includes performing speculative precomputation to determine a live-in value for the speculative thread.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2003
    Publication date: August 5, 2004
    Inventors: Pedro Marcuello, Antonio Gonzalez, Hong Wang, John P. Shen, Per Hammarlund, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Perry H. Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Publication number: 20040154012
    Abstract: The latencies associated with retrieving instruction information for a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is permitted to execute Store instructions. Store blocker logic operates to prevent data associated with a Store instruction in a helper thread from being committed to memory. Dependence blocker logic operates to prevent data associated with a Store instruction in a speculative helper thread from being bypassed to a Load instruction in a non-speculative thread.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2003
    Publication date: August 5, 2004
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Tor Aamodt, Per Hammarlund, John Shen, Xinmin Tian, Milind Girkar, Perry Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Publication number: 20040154011
    Abstract: The latencies associated with retrieving instruction information for a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform instruction prefetch and/or trace pre-build for the main thread.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2003
    Publication date: August 5, 2004
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Tor M. Aamodt, Pedro Marcuello, Jared W. Stark, John P. Shen, Antonio Gonzalez, Per Hammarlund, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Perry H. Wang, Steve Shih-wei Liao
  • Publication number: 20040128489
    Abstract: In one embodiment a thread management method identifies in a main program a set of instructions that can be dynamically activated as speculative precomputation threads. A wait/sleep operation is performed on the speculative precomputation threads between thread creation and activation, and progress of non-speculative threads is gauged through monitoring a set of global variables, allowing the speculative precomputation threads to determine its relative progress with respect to non-speculative threads.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2002
    Publication date: July 1, 2004
    Inventors: Hong Wang, Perry H. Wang, Ross David Weldon, Scott M. Ettinger, Hideki Saito, Milind B. Girkar, Steve Shih-Wei Liao, Mohammad R. Haghighat, Xinmin Tian, John P. Shen, Oren Gershon
  • Publication number: 20040054990
    Abstract: The latencies associated with cache misses or other long-latency instructions in a main thread are decreased through the use of a simultaneous helper thread. The helper thread is a speculative prefetch thread to perform a memory prefetch for the main thread. The instructions for the helper thread are dynamically incorporated into the main thread binary during post-pass operation of a compiler.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2002
    Publication date: March 18, 2004
    Inventors: Steve Shih-wei Liao, Perry H. Wang, Hong Wang, Gerolf F. Hoflehner, Daniel M. Lavery, John P. Shen