Patents by Inventor Wolfram M. Sauer

Wolfram M. Sauer 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: 8943301
    Abstract: Methods for storing branch information in an address table of a processor are disclosed. A processor of the disclosed embodiments may generally include an instruction fetch unit connected to an instruction cache, a branch execution unit, and an address table being connected to the instruction fetch unit and the branch execution unit. The address table may generally be adapted to store a plurality of entries with each entry of the address table being adapted to store a base address and a base instruction tag. In a further embodiment, the branch execution unit may be adapted to determine the address of a branch instruction having an instruction tag based on the base address and the base instruction tag of an entry of the address table associated with the instruction tag. In some embodiments, the address table may further be adapted to store branch information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian R. Konigsburg, David Stephen Levitan, Wolfram M. Sauer, Samuel Jonathan Thomas
  • Publication number: 20110213951
    Abstract: Methods for storing branch information in an address table of a processor are disclosed. A processor of the disclosed embodiments may generally include an instruction fetch unit connected to an instruction cache, a branch execution unit, and an address table being connected to the instruction fetch unit and the branch execution unit. The address table may generally be adapted to store a plurality of entries with each entry of the address table being adapted to store a base address and a base instruction tag. In a further embodiment, the branch execution unit may be adapted to determine the address of a branch instruction having an instruction tag based on the base address and the base instruction tag of an entry of the address table associated with the instruction tag. In some embodiments, the address table may further be adapted to store branch information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2011
    Publication date: September 1, 2011
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Brian R. Konigsburg, David Stephen Levitan, Wolfram M. Sauer, Samuel Jonathan Thomas
  • Patent number: 7984280
    Abstract: Methods for storing branch information in an address table of a processor are disclosed. A processor of the disclosed embodiments may generally include an instruction fetch unit connected to an instruction cache, a branch execution unit, and an address table being connected to the instruction fetch unit and the branch execution unit. The address table may generally be adapted to store a plurality of entries with each entry of the address table being adapted to store a base address and a base instruction tag. In a further embodiment, the branch execution unit may be adapted to determine the address of a branch instruction having an instruction tag based on the base address and the base instruction tag of an entry of the address table associated with the instruction tag. In some embodiments, the address table may further be adapted to store branch information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian R. Konigsburg, David Stephen Levitan, Wolfram M. Sauer, Samuel Jonathan Thomas
  • Patent number: 7890738
    Abstract: A method and logical apparatus for managing processing system resource use for speculative execution reduces the power and performance burden associated with inefficient speculative execution of program instructions. A measure of the efficiency of speculative execution is used to reduce resources allocated to a thread while the speculation efficiency is low. The resource control applied may be the number of instruction fetches allocated to the thread or the number of execution time slices. Alternatively, or in combination, the size of a prefetch instruction storage allocated to the thread may be limited. The control condition may be comparison of the number of correct or incorrect speculations to a threshold, comparison of the number of correct to incorrect speculations, or a more complex evaluator such as the size of a ratio of incorrect to total speculations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lee Evan Eisen, David Stephen Levitan, Francis Patrick O'Connell, Wolfram M. Sauer
  • Publication number: 20100262813
    Abstract: Mechanisms, in a processor, are provided for detecting and handling short forward branch conversion candidates. The mechanisms identify a conditional branch in the computer code and determine if the short forward conditional branch is to be converted to a non-branching conditional sequence of instructions. Moreover, the mechanisms convert the conditional branch to a non-branching conditional sequence of instructions comprising a resolve instruction and one or more conditional instructions dependent on the resolve instruction. In addition, the mechanisms execute the non-branching conditional sequence of instructions in place of the conditional branch in the computer code and generate an output of the computer code based on the execution of the non-branching conditional sequence of instructions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2009
    Publication date: October 14, 2010
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mary D. Brown, Richard W. Doing, Kevin N. Magill, Brian R. Mestan, Wolfram M. Sauer, Balaram Sinharoy, Jeffrey R. Summers, Albert J. Van Norstrand, JR.
  • Publication number: 20080276080
    Abstract: Methods for storing branch information in an address table of a processor are disclosed. A processor of the disclosed embodiments may generally include an instruction fetch unit connected to an instruction cache, a branch execution unit, and an address table being connected to the instruction fetch unit and the branch execution unit. The address table may generally be adapted to store a plurality of entries with each entry of the address table being adapted to store a base address and a base instruction tag. In a further embodiment, the branch execution unit may be adapted to determine the address of a branch instruction having an instruction tag based on the base address and the base instruction tag of an entry of the address table associated with the instruction tag. In some embodiments, the address table may further be adapted to store branch information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2008
    Publication date: November 6, 2008
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian R. Konigsburg, David Stephen Levitan, Wolfram M. Sauer, Samuel Jonathan Thomas
  • Patent number: 7426631
    Abstract: Methods and systems for storing branch information in an address table of a processor are disclosed. A processor of the disclosed embodiments may generally include an instruction fetch unit connected to an instruction cache, a branch execution unit, and an address table being connected to the instruction fetch unit and the branch execution unit. The address table may generally be adapted to store a plurality of entries with each entry of the address table being adapted to store a base address and a base instruction tag. In a further embodiment, the branch execution unit may be adapted to determine the address of a branch instruction having an instruction tag based on the base address and the base instruction tag of an entry of the address table associated with the instruction tag. In some embodiments, the address table may further be adapted to store branch information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian R. Konigsburg, David Stephen Levitan, Wolfram M. Sauer, Samuel Jonathan Thomas
  • Patent number: 6938148
    Abstract: A Storage Reference Buffer (SRB) designed as an autonomous unit for all Store operations that transfer data from the execution unit of a processor to the memory hierarchy and Load operations that transfer data from the memory hierarchy to the execution unit of the processor. The SRB partitions up the Load and Store operations into several smaller operations in order to perform them in parallel with other Load and Store requests. System elements are included to determine unambiguously which of these Load and Store operations may be performed without waiting for prior operations to be completed. The SRB also includes system elements to detect whether requests may be satisfied by existing entries in the SRB without having to access the cache. The SRB is operated as a content addressable memory. Load request are simultaneously launched to cache and to the SRB with the Cache request being canceled if the Load request may be satisfied by an SRB entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Charles Roberts Moore, Ravi Nair, Wolfram M. Sauer
  • Publication number: 20040073775
    Abstract: A Storage Reference Buffer (SRB) designed as an autonomous unit for all Store operations that transfer data from the execution unit of a processor to the memory hierarchy and Load operations that transfer of data from the memory hierarchy to the execution unit of the processor. The SRB partitions up the Load and Store operations into several smaller operations in order to perform them in parallel with other Load and Store requests. System elements are included to determine unambiguously which of these Load and Store operations may be performed without waiting for prior operations to be completed. The SRB also includes system elements to detect whether requests may be satisfied by existing entries in the SRB without having to access the cache. The SRB is operated as a content addressable memory. Load request are simultaneously launched to cache and to the SRB with the Cache request being canceled if the Load request may be satisfied by an SRB entry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2000
    Publication date: April 15, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Charles Roberts Moore, Ravi Nair, Wolfram M. Sauer