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Dynamically configured coprocessor for different extended instruction set personality specific to application program with shared memory storing instructions invisibly dispatched from host processor

  • US 8,205,066 B2
  • Filed: 10/31/2008
  • Issued: 06/19/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for processing data comprising:

  • initiating an executable file on a manufactured host processor of a system, said manufactured host processor having a predefined instruction set that is fixed such that it is not modifiable by a consumer, wherein the executable file contains native instructions that are natively supported by the host processor'"'"'s predefined instruction set and extended instructions that are not natively supported by the host processor'"'"'s predefined instruction set, wherein said extended instructions are present in the executable file as data to be stored to a memory by one or more of said native instructions;

    configuring an application engine of a co-processor of the system, at system run-time, to fully possess a selected one of a plurality of different application-specific personalities, wherein the co-processor has an existing virtual memory and instruction decode infrastructure that is common across all of the plurality of different application-specific personalities, and wherein each of the plurality of different application-specific personalities comprises an extended instruction set having extended instructions that are not natively supported by the host processor'"'"'s instruction set, thereby extending the fixed instruction set of the host processor; and

    processing the instructions of the executable file, wherein said native instructions of the executable file are processed by the host processor and said extended instructions of the executable file are processed by the co-processor, and wherein said host processor unknowingly dispatches said extended instructions of the executable file to the co-processor as a result of executing one or more native instructions of the executable file for writing the extended instructions to a designated portion of said memory that is accessible by said co-processor.

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