Patent ID: 7373488
Filing Date: 2008-05-13
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for transferring saturation history between a coprocessor and a processor comprising: a coprocessor interface unit to identify an instruction of a first instruction format for a saturating operation, a first source having a first plurality of packed data elements and a second source having a second plurality of packed data elements; an execution unit to perform the saturating operation on the first plurality of packed data elements and the second plurality of packed data elements; a first register in the coprocessor that stores a plurality of saturation flags to indicate if a result of the saturating operation saturated; a second register in the processor that receives and stores the plurality of saturation flags; a saturation history processing unit that identifies a saturation history processing instruction of a second instruction format identifying a saturation history processing operation for the saturation flags and a saturation data size, determines at least one of a mask and a test value corresponding to the saturation data size, and performs the saturation history processing operation on the saturation flags stored in the second register and the at least one of the mask and the test value; and a status register having condition code flags that are set to store a result of the saturation history processing operation.