Abstract: A system and method for converting from scaled binary coded decimal (SBCD) into decimal floating point (DFP). The system includes a mechanism for receiving one or more of an exponent part of a SBCD number and a coefficient part of the SBCD number. The system also includes at least one of a mechanism for performing coefficient compression on the coefficient part of the SBCD number to create a coefficient part of a DFP number and a mechanism for performing exponent insertion including inserting the exponent part of the SBCD number into an exponent part of the DFP number.

Abstract: A method for converting from decimal to binary including receiving a binary coded decimal (BCD) number made up of one or more sets of three digits. A running sum and a running carry are set to zero. A process is performed for each set of three digits in the BCD number in order from the set of three digits containing the three most significant digits of the BCD number to the digits containing the three least significant digits of the BCD number. The process includes: creating six partial products based on the set of three digits, the running sum and the running carry; combining the six partial products into two partial products; and storing the two partial products in the running sum and the running carry. The running sum and the running carry from each set of three digits are combined into a final binary result.

Abstract: A decimal floating point (DFP) unit is used to execute fixed point instructions. Two or more operands are accepted, wherein each operand is in a packed binary coded decimal (BCD) format. Any invalid BCD formats are detected by checking the operands for any invalid BCD codes. It is determined if an exception flag exists and, if so, outputting the flag; it is determined if a condition code exists and, if so, outputting the code. An operation is performed on the two or more operands to generate a result; wherein the operation takes place directly on BCD data, thus using the DFP unit to perform a BCD operation; appending a result sign to the result of the operation; and providing the result of the operation and the appended result sign as a result output in a packed BCD format.

Abstract: A processor includes a microarchitecture for working around a processing flaw, the microarchitecture including: at least one detector adapted for detecting a predetermined state associated with the processing flaw; and at least one mechanism to modify default processor processing behavior; and upon modification of processing behavior, the processing of an instruction involving the processing flaw can be completed by avoiding the processing flaw.

Abstract: A method, computer program product and a system for identifying decimal floating point addition operations that guarantee operand alignment and do not require alignment, normalization or rounding are provided. The method includes: receiving an instruction to perform an addition of a first operand and a second operand; extracting a first exponent (EXP) and a first most significant digit (MSD) from the first operand; extracting a second EXP and a second MSD from the second operand; and determining whether alignment between the first operand and the second operand is guaranteed, based on the first EXP, the first MSD, the second EXP and the second MSD.

Abstract: A method for performing decimal multiplication including storing a multiplier and a multiplicand in operand registers, the multiplier including one or more digits. A running sum is stored in a shifter and initialized to zero. The method includes performing for each of the digits in the multiplier in order from least significant digit to most significant digit: creating a partial product of the digit and the multiplicand and adding the partial product to the running sum. The running sum is output as the result of multiplying the multiplier and the multiplicand. The performing and outputting are implemented by a mechanism that includes one or more two cycle adders connected to the operand registers, multiplicand multiples circuitry connected to the operand registers, and a result digits register connected to the two cycle adders.

Abstract: A method for performing decimal division including receiving a scaled divisor and a scaled dividend into input registers. A subset of multiples of the scaled divisor is stored in a plurality of multiples registers. Quotient digits are calculated in response to the scaled divisor and the scaled dividend. Each quotient digit is calculated in three clock cycles by a pipeline mechanism. The calculating includes selecting a new quotient digit, and calculating a new remainder. Input to the calculating a new remainder includes data from one or more of the multiples registers.

Abstract: A method for performing a decimal floating point operation including receiving a first operand having a first coefficient and a first exponent into a first register. A second operand having a second coefficient and a second exponent are received into a second register. An operation, either addition or subtraction, associated with the first operand and the second operand is received. Three concurrent calculations are performed on the first operand and the second operand. The three concurrent calculations include: applying the operation to the first operand and the second operand based on a first assumption; applying the operation to the first operand and the second operand based on a second assumption; and applying the operation to the first operand and the second operand based on a third assumption. A final result is selected from the first result, the second result and the third result.

Abstract: A method for implementing an adder including receiving a first and second operand. A sum of one or more corresponding digits from the first operand and the second operand is calculated. The calculating is performed by a plurality of adder blocks. Output from the calculating includes the sum of the corresponding digits and a carry out indicator for the corresponding digits. The sums of the corresponding digits and the carry out indicators in a carry chain are stored in an intermediate result register. Each of the sums in the intermediate result register is incremented by one. A selection between each of the sums and the sums incremented by one is performed. Input to the selecting includes the carry chain, and the output from the selecting includes a final sum of the first operand and the second operand. The final sum is stored in an output register.

Abstract: A method for performing a decimal floating point operation. A first operand including a first coefficient and a first exponent is received. The method also includes receiving a second operand that includes a second coefficient and a second exponent. An operation associated with the first operand and the second operand is received. The operation is an addition or a subtraction. Three concurrent calculations are performed on the first operand and the second operand. The first concurrent calculation includes applying the operation to the first operand and the second operand based on a first assumption that the first exponent is equal to the second exponent. The applying the operation based on the first assumption results in a first result and includes utilizing a two cycle adder.

Abstract: A method for performing decimal division including receiving a scaled divisor and dividend and storing a subset of the multiples of the scaled divisor. An accumulated quotient is initialized to be equal to zero, a first current remainder is initialized to be equal to the scaled dividend, and a second current remainder is initialized to be equal to the scaled dividend minus the scaled divisor. The following loop is performed until a selected number of quotient digits are produced. An estimated next quotient digit is calculated based on the first digit of the first current remainder. A temp remainder is selected to be either the first current remainder or the second current remainder based on the estimated next quotient digit. A first next remainder is calculated by subtracting one of the stored multiples from the temp remainder, where the stored multiple is selected based on a first digit of the first current remainder.

Abstract: A system for performing decimal multiplication including input registers for inputting a multiplier and a multiplicand. The multiplier includes one or more digits. The system also includes one or more two cycle adders and mechanism. The mechanism receives the multiplier and the multiplicand into the input registers. A running sum is reset to zero. The mechanism also performs for each of the digits in the multiplier in order from least significant digit to most significant digit: creating a partial product of the digit and the multiplicand; and adding the partial product to the running sum using the two cycle adders. When the loop is completed for each of the digits in the multiplier, the mechanism outputs the running sum as the result.

Abstract: A method of implementing binary multiplication in a processing device includes obtaining a multiplicand and a multiplier from a storage device; in the event the multiplier is larger than a selected length, partitioning the multiplier into a plurality of multiplier subgroups; in the event the multiplicand is larger than a selected length, partitioning the multiplicand into a plurality of multiplicand subgroups and at least one of zeroing out of unused bits of the multiplicand subgroup and sign-extending a smaller portion of the multiplicand subgroup; establishing a plurality of multiplicand multiples based on at least one of a selected multiplicand subgroup of the plurality of multiplicand subgroups and the multiplicand; selecting one or more of the multiplicand multiples of the plurality of multiplicand multiples based on the each multiplier subgroup of the plurality of multiplier subgroups; and generating a first modular product based on the selected multiplicand multiples.

Abstract: A system for performing decimal floating point addition. The system includes input registers for inputting a first and second operand for an addition operation. The system also includes a plurality of adder blocks, each calculating a sum of one or more corresponding digits from the first operand and the second operand. Output from each of the adder blocks includes the sum of the corresponding digits and a carry out indicator for the corresponding digits. The calculating is performed during a first clock cycle. The system also includes an intermediate result register for storing the sums of the corresponding digits output from each of the plurality of adder blocks, the storing during the first clock cycle. The system further includes a carry chain for storing the carry out indicator output from each of the plurality of adder blocks, the storing occurring during the first clock cycle.

Abstract: A method for decimal multiplication in a superscaler processor comprising: obtaining a first operand and a second operand; establishing a multiplier and an effective multiplicand from the first operand and the second operand; and generating and accumulating a partial product term every two cycles. The partial product terms are created from the effective multiplicand and multiples of the multiplier, where the effective multiplicand is stored in a first register file, the multiples being ones times the effective multiplier, two times the effective multiplier, four times the effective multiplier and eight times the effective multiplier and the partial product terms are added to an accumulation of previous partial product terms shifted one digit right such that a digit shifted off is preserved as a result digit.

Abstract: Complex floating point instructions are executed under millicode control when it is not cost effective to implement its function in hardware. One of the disadvantages to executing complex instructions using millicode routines is that determining and accessing the instructions operands are costly for millicode performance. To determine what the source and target location are, the instruction text is parsed. Furthermore the millicode instruction stream must be modified to access the operand data from and write the result to the program registers specified by the complex floating point instruction. The invention overcomes these disadvantages by providing millicode with register indirect access to the program floating point registers.

Abstract: A method and apparatuses for performing binary multiplication on signed and unsigned operands of various lengths is discussed herein. It is a concept that may be split into two parts, the first of which is the multiplication hardware itself, a compact, less than-full sized multiplier employing Booth or other type of recoding methods upon the multiplier to reduce the number of partial products per scan, and implemented in such a manner so that a multiplication operation with large operands may be broken into subgroups of operations that will fit into this mid-sized multiplier whose results, here called modular products, may be knitted back together to form a correct, final product. The second part of the concept is the supporting hardware used to separate the operands into subgroups and input the data and control signals to the multiplier, and the algorithms and apparatuses used to align and combine the modular products properly to obtain the final product.

Abstract: A method of pre-aligning data for storage during instruction execution improves performance by eliminating the cycles otherwise required for data alignment. The method can convert data between ASCII and Packed Decimal format, and between Unicode Basic Latin and Packed Decimal format. Conversion to Packed Decimal format is needed for decimal hardware in a microprocessor designed to generate decimal results. Converting from Packed Decimal to ASCII and Unicode Basic Latin is necessary to report Decimal Arithmetic results in a required format for the application program. To further improve performance, all available write ports in the fixed point unit (FXU) are utilized to reduce the number of cycles necessary to store results. To prevent data fetching of the unused destination data from slowing down instruction execution, the destination locations are tested for storage access exceptions, but the data for these operands are not actually fetched.

Abstract: A method for decimal multiplication in a superscaler processor comprising: obtaining a first operand and a second operand; establishing a multiplier and an effective multiplicand from the first operand and the second operand; and generating and accumulating a partial product term every two cycles. The partial product terms are created from the effective multiplicand and multiples of the multiplier, where the effective multiplicand is stored in a first register file, the multiples being ones times the effective multiplier, two times the effective multiplier, four times the effective multiplier and eight times the effective multiplier and the partial product terms are added to an accumulation of previous partial product terms shifted one digit right such that a digit shifted off is preserved as a result digit.

Abstract: A method of decimal division in a superscalar processor comprising: obtaining a first operand and a second operand; establishing a dividend and a divisor from the first operand and the second operand; determining a quotient digit and a resulting partial remainder; based on multiple parallel/simultaneous subtractions of at least one of the divisor and a multiple of the divisor from the dividend, utilizing dataflow elements of multiple execution pipes of the superscalar processor.