Java hardware accelerator using microcode engine

• US 7,225,436 B1
• Filed: 10/13/2000
• Issued: 05/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nazomi Communications Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nazomi Communications Incorporated
• Inventors: Patel, Mukesh K.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US09/687,777
• Time in Patent Office: 2,419 Days
• Field of Search: 717136-140, 717/118, 717/148, 717/131, 717/143, 717/116, 717134-137, 717/139, 717/165, 717/190, 712/137, 712/202, 712/203, 712/210, 712/36, 712/229, 711/108, 711/1, 711/103
• US Class Current: 717/139
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30174 for non-native instruction set, e.g. Javabyte, legacy code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3879 for non-native instruction execution, e.g. executing a command; for Java instruction set
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45516 Runtime code conversion or optimisation

Abstract

A hardware Java™ accelerator is comprised of a decode stage and a microcode stage. Separating into the decode and microcode stage allows the decode stage to implement instruction level parallelism while the microcode stage allows the conversion of a single Java™ bytecode into multiple native instructions. A reissue buffer is provided which stores the converted instructions and reissues them when the system returns from an interrupt. In this manner, the hardware accelerator need not be flushed upon an interrupt A native PC monitor is also used. While the native PC is within a specific range, the hardware accelerator is enabled to convert the Java™ bytecodes into native instructions. When the native PC is outside the range, the hardware accelerator is disabled and the CPU operates on native instructions obtained from the memory.

Claims

1. A CPU for executing stack and register-based instructions, comprising:

execute logic for executing the register-based instructions;

a register file associated with the executed logic; and

a hardware accelerator to process stack-based instructions in cooperation with the execute logic, wherein the hardware accelerator generates a new virtual machine program counter (PC) due to a “

jump subroutine JSR”

or “

jump subroutine wide JSR_W”

bytecode by sign extending the immediate branch offset following the “

jump subrountine JSR”

or “

jump subroutine wide JSR_W”

byte code and adding it to the virtual machine (PC) of the current byte code instruction, computes the return virtual machine program counter and pushes the return virtual machine program counter

2. A central processing unit (CPU) for executing stack and register-based instructions, comprising:

execute logic for executing the register-based instructions;

a register file associated with the execute logic; and

a hardware accelerator to process stack-based instructions in cooperation with the execute logic, wherein the hardware accelerator;

maintains an operand stack for the stack-based instructions in the register file such that the operand stack in the register file define a ring buffer in conjunction with an overflow/underflow mechanism for moving operands in the operand stack between the register file and a memory, and loads variables required for processing the stack-based instructions into the register file,

generates a new virtual machine program counter due to a “

GOTO”

or “

GOTO_W”

byte code by sign extending the immediate branch offset following the “

GOTO”

or “

GOTO_W”

bytecode and adds it to the virtual machine program counter of the current bytecode instruction,

generates a new virtual machine program counter due to a “

JSR”

or “

JSR_W”

bytecode by sign extending the immediate branch offset following the “

JSR”

or “

JSR_W”

bytecode and adding it to the virtual machine PC of the current byte code instruction, computes the return virtual machine program counter and pushes the return virtual machine program counter onto the operand stack,

performs a sign extension for the virtual machine SiPush and BiPush byte codes and appends the sign extended data to the immediate field of a register-based instruction being composed based the stack-based instructions;

performs sign extension for virtual machine SiPush and BiPush bytecodes and makes the sign extended data available to be read by the execute logic; and

produces exceptions in respect of selected stack-based instructions.

3. The CPU of claim 2, wherein the exceptions are processed using register-based instructions.

4. The CPU of claim 2, wherein the hardware accelerator processes the stack-based instructions in cooperation with the execute logic by converting the stack-based instructions into register-based instructions for execution in the execute logic.

5. A central processing unit (CPU) comprising:

execute logic to receive and process input corresponding to register-based instruction;

a hardware accelerator to process stack-based instructions to produce an output that can be processed by the execute logic;

an operand stack for the stack-based instructions, the operand stack being maintained in a register file as a ring buffer;

an overflow/underflow mechanism for moving operands in the operand stack between a register file and a memory, said register file also storing data associated with the register-based instructions;

a bytecode buffer that receives stack-based instructions from the memory; and

an instruction decode unit coupled to the bytecode buffer to decode instructions received from the bytecode buffer and to provide an indication of how many bytes have been processed; and

a common program counter for the stack-based instructions and the register-based instructions, wherein the common program counter is incremented by the indication of the number of bytes processed.

6. The CPU of claim 5, further comprising a common instruction cache for the stack-based instructions and the register-based instructions.

7. The CPU of claim 5, wherein the instruction decode unit produces an indication for a variable stored in the register file.

8. The CPU of claim 5, further comprising a microcode unit coupled to the instruction decode unit to receive output therefrom.

9. The CPU of claim 8, wherein the instruction decode unit generates a start address for the microcode unit.

10. The CPU of claim 9, further comprising a mechanism to select the start address or an incremented start address for the microcode unit.

11. The CPU of claim 9, wherein the microcode unit produces a stack update indication to cause the instruction decode unit to generate a new start address for the microcode unit.

12. The CPU of claim 5, wherein the hardware accelerator produces an exception in respect of selected stack-based instructions.

13. The CPU of claim 12, wherein the exception is processed using register based instructions.

14. The CPU of claim 5, wherein the instruciton decode unit decodes multiple instructions received from the bytecode buffer in parallel.

15. The CPU of claim 14, wherein the instruction decode unit comprises multiple decoders.

16. A method for a central processing unit (CPU), comprising:

for register-based instructions, processing the register-based instructions in execute logic capable of processing the register-based instructions; and

for stack-based instructions, processing the stack-based instructions in a hardware accelerator into input the execute logic is capable of processing, wherein the hardware accelerator generates a new virtual machine program counter (PC) due to a “

jump subroutine JSR”

or “

jump subroutine wide JSR_-W”

bytecode by sign extending an immediate branch offset following the “

JSR”

or “

JSR_-W”

bytecode and adding it to a virtual machine program counter (PC) of a current bytecode instruction, computes a return virtual machine program counter (PC) and pushes the return virtual machine program counter onto an operand stack.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein processing the stack-based instructions comprises decoding multiple stack-based instructions in an instruction decode unit in parallel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein processing the stack-based instructions comprises generating a start address for a microcode unit in the instruction deccode unit.

19. The method of claim 18, processing the stack-based instructions comprises selecting the start address or an incremented start address for the microcode unit.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein processing the stack-based instructions comprises generating exceptions in respect of selected stack-based instructions.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising storing the storing the stack-based instructions and the register-based instructions in a common instruction cache.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein processing the stack-based instructions comprises producing an indication for a variable stored in a register file.