Patent ID: 6701427
Filing Date: 2004-03-02
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A data processing apparatus for processing floating point instructions, comprising:an execution unit comprising a plurality of pipelined stages, and being responsive to a floating point instruction to apply a floating point operation to a number of operands to produce a final result, result data being generated during a predetermined pipelined stage with further processing then being performed on the result data in one or more subsequent pipelined stages to generate the final result; exception determination logic for determining based on the operands whether an exception may occur during application of the floating point operation to the operands, and to prevent the execution unit applying the floating point operation to those operands if it is determined that an exception may occur; a forwarding path for forwarding the result data generated in the predetermined pipelined stage during processing of a first floating point instruction to a previous pipelined stage for use as an operand of a second floating point instruction, control logic for generating predetermined control data related to the forwarded result data, the exception determination logic being arranged to use at least some of the predetermined control data to compensate for differences between the forwarded result data and the final result relevant when determining whether an exception may occur when processing the second floating point instruction.