Method and apparatus for performing computations and operations on data using data steering
First Claim
1. A data processing system, comprising:
- a plurality of functional units;
a plurality of routing units, responsive to respective routing control signals and coupled to the plurality of functional units, by which data is steered among the plurality of functional units, the routing control signals indicating a source functional unit and a destination functional unit for a data unit; and
control word logic which supplies control words to the plurality of routing units, said control words including the routing control signals.
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Abstract
A data processing system architecture is based upon a hardware engine that includes a plurality of functional units and data routing units that interconnect the functional units. The hardware engine performs operations and computations on data as the data traverses paths through the functional units under control of software. The functional units include logic resources, examples of which are flip-flops, latches, arithmetic logic units, random access memory, and the like. The routing units are responsive to the software control signals that are turned on or off to steer the data through these resources. Operations and computations are accomplished according to the steering of the data through the functional units, rather than according to decoding of operation commands that control the functions performed, as typical in the prior art.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A data processing system, comprising:
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a plurality of functional units;
a plurality of routing units, responsive to respective routing control signals and coupled to the plurality of functional units, by which data is steered among the plurality of functional units, the routing control signals indicating a source functional unit and a destination functional unit for a data unit; and
control word logic which supplies control words to the plurality of routing units, said control words including the routing control signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A data processing system, comprising:
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a plurality of processing blocks;
a plurality of routing units, coupled to the plurality of processing blocks and responsive to respective routing control signals for the plurality of processing blocks, by which data is steered among the plurality of processing blocks; and
block level control word logic which supplies signals the plurality of routing units, said control words including the routing control signals for the processing blocks;
wherein processing blocks in said plurality of processing blocks respectively includea plurality of functional units;
a plurality of unit level routing units, coupled to the plurality of functional units and responsive to respective routing control signals for the plurality of functional units, by which data is steered among the plurality of functional units; and
functional unit level control word logic which supplies signals the plurality of routing units, said control words including the routing control signals for the plurality of functional units. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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23. A method of processing data, in a data processing engine that includes a plurality of functional units, comprising:
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providing a set of software control words that specify a route among the plurality of functional units; and
routing data among the plurality of functional units according to the set of software control words to produce a result. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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29. A method of processing data, in a data processing engine that includes a plurality of functional units, comprising;
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providing a first set of software control words that specify a first data path according to a first configuration of the plurality of functional units; and
providing a second set of software control words that specifies a second data path according to a second configuration of the plurality of functional units, whereby the plurality of functional units is reconfigured to perform a different function. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification