Patent ID: 7743235
Filing Date: 2010-06-22
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A processor comprising: an instruction store to store instructions of a program to execute; logic circuitry to perform operations in response to the instructions of the program, the logic circuitry comprising: wherein the processor comprises multiple programmable processing units to execute program instructions in parallel, each of the programmable processing units having an associated programmable processing unit Arithmetic Logic Unit; and wherein the dedicated hash unit comprises a dedicated hash unit communicatively coupled to each of the multiple programmable processing units by a bus; wherein each of the multiple programmable processing units includes registers; wherein the accessed data to hash includes hash keys fetched from the registers of one of the multiple programmable processing units in response to the hash request, the hash request issued from the one of the multiple programmable processing units; wherein the dedicated hash unit comprises logic circuitry to fetch hash keys; wherein the Arithmetic Logic Unit integrated within the processor to perform arithmetic operations in response to instructions in the program is a one of the associated programmable processing units' Arithmetic Logic Unit; wherein the multiple programmable processing units issue hash requests to the dedicated hash unit; and wherein the Arithmetic Logic Unit of the programmable processing unit of a programmable processing unit that issues a hash request concurrently performs, in parallel with the hash operation, an arithmetic operation by the ALU; and wherein the dedicated hash unit comprises a dedicated hash unit shared by each of the multiple programmable processing units via the bus.