Patent ID: 6178497
Filing Date: 2001-01-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for determining an age function in a processor, comprising the steps of:performing a logical function on each instruction residing within a queue;determining when a particular one of the instructions residing in the queue was stored in the queue relative to the other instructions; anddetermining an oldest or youngest instruction residing in the queue relative to the logical functions performed on each of the instructions, wherein the step of determining the oldest or youngest instruction residing in the queue relative to the logical functions performed on each of the instructions further comprises the step of calculating:A.sub.1 =(I.sub.i-1.multidot.T.sub.i).multidot.V.sub.1wherein i is the index of the instruction residing in the queue, and wherein V.sub.i is a vector representing which of the i instructions are valid, and wherein T.sub.i is a vector representing which of the i instructions is the oldest or the youngest, and wherein I.sub.i-1 is derived from:I.sub.i =(I.sub.i-1.multidot.T.sub.i)+V.sub.1.