# Patent

## Title
Method and system to provide user-level multithreading

## Abstract

A method and system to provide user-level multithreading are disclosed. The method according to the present techniques comprises receiving programming instructions to execute one or more shared resource threads (shreds) via an instruction set architecture (ISA). One or more instruction pointers are configured via the ISA; and the one or more shreds are executed simultaneously with a microprocessor, wherein the microprocessor includes multiple instruction sequencers.

## Background
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/816,103, filed Mar. 31, 2004, currently pending.


FIELD
The present embodiments of the invention relate to the field of computer systems. In particular, the present embodiments relate to a method and system to provide user-level multithreading.
BACKGROUND
Multithreading is the ability of a program or an operating system to execute more than one sequence of instructions at a time. Each user request for a program or system service (and here a user can also be another program) is kept track of as a thread with a separate identity. As programs work on behalf of the initial request for that thread and are interrupted by other requests, the status of work on behalf of that thread is kept track of until the work is completed.
Types of computer processing include single instruction stream, single data stream, which is the conventional serial von Neumann computer that includes a single stream of instructions. A second processing type is the single instruction stream, multiple data streams process (SIMD). This processing scheme may include multiple arithmetic-logic processors and a single control processor. Each of the arithmetic-logic processors performs operations on the data in lock step and are synchronized by the control processor. A third type is multiple instruction streams, single data stream (MISD) processing which involves processing the same data stream flows through a linear array of processors executing different instruction streams. A fourth processing type is multiple instruction streams, multiple data streams (MIMD) processing which uses multiple processors, each executing its own instruction stream to process a data stream fed to each of the processors. MIMD processors may have several instruction processing units, multiple instruction sequencers and therefore several data streams.
The programming model adopted by today's multithreaded microprocessors is the same as the traditional shared memory multiprocessor: multiple threads are programmed as though they run on independent CPUs. Communication between threads is performed through main memory, and thread creation/destruction/scheduling is performed by the operating system. Multithreading has not been provided in an architecturally-visible manner in which programmers can directly access threads.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present embodiments of the invention will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary computer system utilizing the present method and apparatus, according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary chip-level multiprocessor, according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary simultaneous multithreaded processor, according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary asymmetric multiprocessor, according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary execution environment for providing user-level multithreading, according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary relationship between shreds and shared memory threads, according to one embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process of user-level multithreading, according to one embodiment of the present invention.



DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A method and system to provide user-level multithreading are disclosed. The method according to the present techniques comprises receiving programming instructions to execute one or more shared resource threads (shreds) via an instruction set architecture (ISA). One or more instruction pointers are configured via the ISA; and the one or more shreds are executed simultaneously with a microprocessor, wherein the microprocessor includes multiple instruction sequencers.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, specific nomenclature is set forth. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details are not required. Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
The embodiments of the invention provided also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, one embodiment of the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of embodiments of the invention as described herein.
“Users” as used throughout this specification, describe user-level software such as application programs, non-privileged code, and similar software. User-level software is distinguished from an operating system or similar privileged software. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the following description applies to MIMD processors, as described above.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary computer system 100 utilizing the present method and apparatus, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Computer system includes a processor 105. Chipset 110 provides system 100 with memory and I/O functions. More particularly, chipset 110 includes a Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) 115. GMCH 115 acts as a host controller that communicates with processor 105 and further acts as a controller for main memory 120. Processor 105 allows the extension of multithreading to a user-level, according to one embodiment of the present invention. GMCH 115 also provides an interface to Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) controller 125 which is coupled thereto. Chipset 110 further includes an I/O Controller Hub (ICH) 135 which performs numerous I/O functions. ICH 135 is coupled to a System Management Bus (SM Bus) 140.
ICH 135 is coupled to a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus 155. A super I/O (“SID”) controller 170 is coupled to ICH 135 to provide connectivity to input devices such as a keyboard and mouse 175. A general-purpose I/O (GPIO) bus 195 is coupled to ICH 135. USB ports 200 are coupled to ICH 135 as shown. USB devices such as printers, scanners, joysticks, etc. can be added to the system configuration on this bus. An integrated drive electronics (IDE) bus 205 is coupled to ICH 135 to connect IDE drives 210 to the computer system. Logically, ICH 135 appears as multiple PCI devices within a single physical component.
Included in processor 105, is an instruction set architecture. Instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model of a microprocessor, such as processor 105, that consists of state elements (registers) and instructions that operate on those state elements. The instruction set architecture serves as a boundary between software and hardware by providing an abstract specification of the microprocessor's behavior to both the programmer and the microprocessor designer.
Advances in the number of transistors available on a silicon chip have enabled the introduction of multithreading into general-purpose microprocessors. Multithreading may be implemented in two different manners: chip-level multiprocessor (CMP) and simultaneous multithreaded processor (SMT), both of which may be used as processor 105.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary chip-level multiprocessor, according to one embodiment of the present invention. In a chip-level multiprocessor, such as processor 200, multiple CPU cores 210-213 are integrated onto a single silicon chip 200. Each of CPU cores 210-213 is capable of carrying out an independent thread 220-223 of execution even though some resources (such as caches) may be shared by more than one of CPU cores 210-213.
FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary simultaneous multithreaded processor 300, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Processor 105 can be a simultaneous multithreaded processor, such as processor 300. In a simultaneous multithreaded processor 300, a single CPU core 310 is capable of carrying out multiple threads of execution. The CPU core 310 appears to software as two or more processors by sharing CPU resources with extremely fine granularity (often determining which thread to process with each resource on a clock-by-clock basis).
FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary asymmetric multiprocessor 400, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Processor 105 can be an asymmetric multiprocessor, such as multiprocessor 400. It is possible to build a chip-level multiprocessor 400 in which the CPU cores 410-427 have different microarchitectures but the same ISA. For example, a small number of high performance CPU cores 410-411 may be integrated with a large number of low-power CPU cores 420-427. This type of design can achieve high aggregate throughput as well as high scalar performance. The two types of CPU cores can appear to software either as conventional shared-memory threads, or as the shreds, or some combination of both. Instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model of a microprocessor, such as processor 105, that consists of state elements (registers) and instructions that operate on those state elements. The ISA serves as a boundary between software and hardware by providing an abstract specification of the microprocessor's behavior to both the programmer and the microprocessor designer. The present programming model enables the application program to directly control multiple asymmetrical CPU cores.
Shared-Memory Programming Model
Prior multithreaded microprocessors adopt the same programming model as prior shared-memory multiprocessor systems. The programming model is as follows. A microprocessor provides multiple threads of execution to the operating system. The operating system uses these threads to run multiple applications (“processes”) concurrently, and/or run multiple threads from a single application (“multithreaded”) concurrently. In both cases, the threads appear to software as independent CPUs. Main memory is shared by all threads and communication between threads is carried out through main memory. Hardware resources within the CPU may also be shared, but the sharing is hidden from software by the microarchitecture.
While the traditional shared memory multiprocessor programming model is widely understood and supported by many operating systems and application programs, the model has a number of disadvantages. They are:

    
    
        1) Communication between threads is carried out via main memory and is thus extremely slow. Caching can alleviate some of the latency, but often cache lines must be passed from one CPU core to another to facilitate sharing.
        2) Synchronization between threads is carried out using memory-based semaphores, and is thus extremely slow.
        3) Creating, destroying, suspending, and resuming threads requires intervention of the operating system and is thus extremely slow.
        4) A microprocessor vendor is not able to offer the most effective multithreading because improvements in CPU multithreading are being diluted by the memory latencies and operating system latencies described above.

Multithreading Architecture Extension

    
    


For the reasons stated above regarding prior systems, the present method and system extend processor architectures to include architecturally-visible multithreading through multithreading architecture extensions. Multiple simultaneous threads of execution, multiple instruction pointers, and multiple copies of certain application state (registers) within a single processing element are provided. Multiple threads of execution are distinguishable from existing shared-memory threads, and are referred to as shreds, or shared resource threads.
The present multithreading architecture extensions (an example of which is hereafter referred to as “MAX”) would include existing architecture capabilities and in addition support multiple simultaneous shreds, each with its own instruction pointer, general registers, FP registers, branch registers, predicate registers, and certain application registers. Non-privileged instructions are created to create and destroy shreds. Communication between shreds are carried out through shared registers in addition to shared memory. The need for semaphores would be reduced because the present multithreading architecture extensions would guarantee atomic access to shared registers. Additionally, the present multithreading architecture extensions can be used with 32-bit architectures, such as the 32-bit architecture by Intel®, or 64-bit architectures, such as 64-bit architecture also by Intel®, or even 16-bit architectures.
A comparison between the conventional shared-memory multiprocessor thread and a shred is shown in the following table, according to one embodiment of the present invention.









TABLE 1






Shared Memory
Multithreading



Multiprocessor
Architecture


Operation
Thread
Extension shred







Creation,
Operating system call
Non-privileged


Destruction

instruction


Communication
Shared memory
Shared registers and




memory


Synchronization
Memory semaphore
Register and memory




semaphores. Shared




registers guarantee




atomic update.


System state
Unique system state
Shared system state



for each thread
for all shreds









It should be noted that the present multithreading architecture extension is fundamentally different from prior architecture extensions. While prior architecture extensions provided more instructions and more registers (state), the multithreading architecture extension provides more units of execution.
Application and System State
Programmer-visible CPU state may be divided into two categories: application state and system state. The application state is used and controlled by both application programs and the operating system, while the system state is controlled exclusively by the operating system.
FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary execution environment for providing user-level multithreading, according to one embodiment of the present invention. The execution environment 600 includes the registers whose application state is summarized in the following table:









TABLE 2





32-bit architecture




Application State
Name
Width







General Purpose
EAX, EBX, ECX,
32-bits


Registers
EDX, EBP, ESI,


605
EDI, ESP


Floating Point Registers
ST0-7
80-bits


625


Segment Registers
CS, DS, ES, FS,
16-bits


610
GS, SS


Flags Register
EFLAGS
32-bits, certain


615

bits are




application


Instruction Pointer
EIP
32-bits


620


FP Control and Status
CW 626,
16-bits,


Registers
SW 627,
16-bits,


626-631
TW 628
16-bits,



FP opcode 629,
11-bits,



instruction
48-bits,



pointer 630,



operand
48-bits



pointer 631


MMX Registers
MM0-7
64-bits, aliased


635

to ST0-7


SSE Registers
XMM0-7
128-bits 


640


MXCSR Register
MXCSR
32-bits


645









User-level multithreading registers 650-665 will be described in greater detail below.
The 32-bit architecture system state is summarized below.









TABLE 3





32-bit architecture




System State
Number
Width







Control Registers
CR0-CR4
32-bits


626


Flags Register
Subset
32-bits, subset


615
EFLAGS


Memory Management
GDTR,
48-bits


Registers
IDTR


Local Descriptor Table
LDTR,
16-bits


Register, Task
TR


Register


Debug Registers
DR0-DR7
32-bits


Model Specific
MSR0-
64-bits


Registers
MSRN
Includes registers for time


650

stamp counter, APIC,




machine check, memory type




range registers, performance




monitoring.


Shared registers
SH0-SH7
32-bits


655


Shred control registers
SC0-SC4
32-bits


660









For each shred, the application state is divided into two categories: per-shred application state and shared application state. The MAX programming model described herein, provides a unique instance of the per-shred application state while the shared application state is shared among multiple shreds. There is only one copy of the system state and all shreds corresponding to a given thread share the same system state. An approximate division of application and state is presented in the following table:








TABLE 4





State
Type







General Registers (programmable subset)
Per-shred private


Floating Point Registers (programmable
state


subset)


SSE Registers (programmable subset)


Instruction Pointer


Flags (application subset)


General Registers (programmable subset)
Shared among


Floating Point Registers (programmable
multiple shreds,


subset)
private to each thread


SSE Registers (programmable subset)


Shared Registers (new)


Flags (system subset)


Memory Management Registers


Address Translation (TLBs)


Current Privilege Level


Control Registers


Main Memory
Shared among



multiple threads









The present multithreading architecture extension offers programmable sharing or privacy of most application state so that software can select the best partitioning. The programming is performed with a bit-vector so that individual registers can be selected as either shared or private. A hardware re-namer can allocate registers from either a shared pool or a private pool as specified by the bit-vector.
The overall storage requirements of MAX are smaller than those of prior simultaneous multithreaded processors and chip-level multiprocessors. In MAX, only the per-shred private application state is replicated, whereas in a simultaneously multithreaded processor or chip-level multiprocessor that implements the traditional shared-memory multiprocessor programming model, the entire application and system state must be replicated.
Shred/Thread Hierarchy
Each shared memory thread consists of multiple shreds. The shreds and shared-memory threads form a two-level hierarchy. In an alternate embodiment, a three-level hierarchy can be built from clusters of shared-memory MAX processors. The clusters communicate using message passing. The operating system handles the scheduling of threads whereas the application program handles the scheduling of shreds. The shreds are non-uniform in the sense that any given shred sees other shreds as either local or remote. Per-shred application state is replicated for each shred. The shared application and system state is common to the local shreds, and replicated for each shared-memory thread. The memory state has only one copy.
FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary relationship between shreds and shared memory threads, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Per-shred application state 510 is replicated for each shred. The shared application and system state 520 is common to the local shreds, and replicated for each shared-memory thread. The memory state 530 has only one copy.
Because the system state 520 is shared between multiple shreds in the MAX programming model, the multiple shreds belong to the same process. The present multithreading architecture extensions are intended to be used by multithreaded applications, libraries, and virtual machines. The MAX programming model gives this type of software an unprecedented degree of control over its shreds and a performance potential that is not achievable with the shared-memory multiprocessor programming model discussed above.
No protection checking is required between shreds since they all run at the same privilege level and share the same address translation. Thus, the traditional protection mechanisms may be avoided during inter-shred communication.
The MAX programming model cannot be used to run different processes on the same thread due to the shared system state. For this reason, the MAX and prior shared-memory programming models coexist within the same system.
Since a given CPU offers a finite number of physical shreds, software virtualizes the number of available shreds in a similar manner to the virtualization of hardware threads. The virtualization results in a finite number of currently running physical shreds along with a potentially unbounded number of virtual shreds.
System Calls
Operating system calls may be processed in the conventional manner by transferring control from the application program to the operating system and performing a context switch. With the MAX architecture, one key difference is that calling the operating system on any shred will suspend the execution of all shreds associated with a given thread. The operating system is responsible for saving and restoring the state of all shreds belonging to the same thread.
Due to the additional state, the context switch overhead increases. The context switch memory footprint grows in proportion to the number of shreds. However, the context switch time does not increase by much because each shred can save/restore its state in parallel with other shreds. The context switch mechanism allows parallel state save/restore using multiple sequencers. The operating system itself makes use of multiple shreds.
Because the cost of calling the operating system increases, certain functionality that was performed by the operating system to be migrated to the application program. This functionality includes thread maintenance and processing of certain exceptions and interrupts.
An alternative embodiment of performing system calls is based on the observation that threads are becoming cheap while context switches are becoming expensive. In this embodiment, a thread is dedicated to running the operating system and a second thread is dedicated to running the application program. When the application program shred performs a system call, it sends a message to an operating system shred (via shared memory) and waits for a response message. In this manner, the message passing and wait mechanism replaces the conventional control transfer and context switch mechanism. No change to the address translation of either thread is required. The benefit is that a message sent by one shred to the operating system does not disturb other local shreds.
Exceptions
In prior architectures, exceptions suspend execution of the application program and invoke an operating system exception handler. Under the MAX programming model, this behavior is undesirable because suspending one shred to invoke the operating system causes all shreds (associated with a given thread) also to be suspended.
To solve this problem, we introduce a new user-level exception mechanism that gives the application program the first opportunity to service many types of exceptions. The user-level exception mechanism is based on the observation that a few existing exception types are ultimately serviced by the application itself.
For the user-level exception mechanism, how an exception is reported versus is distinguished from how an exception is serviced. Exceptions may be divided into three categories as follows.

    
    
        1. Exceptions that are reported to the application program and serviced by the application program. For example, a divide by zero exception is reported to the application that caused the exception, and also serviced by the application. No operating system involvement is necessary or desirable.
        2. Exceptions that are reported to the application program, which must then call the operating system for service. A page fault raised by an application may be reported to the application, but the application program must call the operating system to swap in the page.
        3. Exceptions that must be reported to the operating system and serviced by the operating system. For security reasons, hardware interrupts must be reported to the operating system. System calls (software interrupts) must obviously be reported to the operating system
    
    


The following table illustrates the exceptions in each of the three categories. The “Load exception on cache miss” and “Fine-grained timer” exception types are provided as exception types related to one embodiment of the present invention.











TABLE 5







Exception Type
Reported to
Serviced by









Divide by zero, overflow,
Application
Application



bound, FP exception



Alignment check
Application
Application



Invalid opcode
Application
Application



Load exception on cache miss
Application
Application



Fine-grained timer
Application
Application



Stack segment fault
Application
System



General protection
Application
System



Page fault
Application
System



Double fault
Application
System



Device not available
Application
System



Hardware interrupt
System
System



Non-maskable interrupt
System
System



Software interrupt (INT n)
System
System










Exceptions reported to the application program are selectively processed within the application, or passed to the operating system for processing. In the latter case, the application program performs a system call to explicitly request service from the operating system in response to an exception (such as a page fault). This contrasts with the traditional approach of the operating system implicitly performing such services on behalf of the application. To avoid nested exceptions, special provisions are provided to ensure that the application code that relays exceptions to the operating system does not itself incur additional exceptions. The user-level exception mechanism saves a minimum number of CPU registers in a shadow register set, and the processor vectors to a fixed location.
Virtual Machines
Virtual machines and the present embodiments of multithreading architecture extensions impose constraints on each other because virtual machines raise exceptions whenever software attempts to access a resource that is being virtualized, and exception processing has significant performance consequences to the shreds.
In a virtual machine, the execution of privileged instructions or access to privileged processor state raises an exception. The exception must be reported to (and serviced by) the virtual machine monitor. In MAX, exceptions serviced by the operating system (and virtual machine monitor) cause all shreds associated with a given thread to be suspended. The virtual machine monitor comprehends the presence of multiple shreds. The virtual machine architecture minimizes the number of exceptions raised on non-privileged instructions and processor resources.
Deadlock
Deadlock avoidance is complicated in the MAX architecture because shreds can be suspended by other local shreds. The application software ensures that deadlock will not occur if one shred incurs an OS-serviced exception or system call, causing all local shreds to be suspended.
Local (inter-shred) communication and synchronization, is distinguished from remote (inter-thread) communication and synchronization. Local communication is performed using either shared registers 655 (illustrated in FIG. 5) or shared memory. Remote communication is performed using shared memory. Local data synchronization is performed using atomic register updates, register semaphores, or memory semaphores. Remote data synchronization is performed using memory semaphores.
Both local and remote shred control (creation, destruction) are performed using the MAX instructions. Shred control does not call the operating system for wait ( ) or yield ( ) because this can have the unintentional effect of suspending all shreds on a given thread. The operating system calls used for thread maintenance are replaced by calls to a user-level shred library. The shred library, in turn, calls the operating system to create and destroy threads as needed.
Shreds and Fibers
Shreds differ from fibers implemented in prior operating systems. The differences are summarized in the table below:









TABLE 6





Characteristic
Fiber
Shred







Creation
A thread may create
A thread may create



multiple fibers
multiple shreds


Concurrency
A thread can run one
A thread can run multiple



fiber at any instant in
shreds simultaneously



time


Scheduling
Fibers are scheduled by
shreds are scheduled by



software using a
hardware using



cooperative multitasking
simultaneous



mechanism
multithreading or chip-




level multiprocessing


State
Each fiber has its own
Each shred has its own



private application state
private application state


State storage
The currently-running
Each currently-running



fiber's state is stored in
physical shred's state is



registers. Inactive
stored in on-chip



fiber's state is stored in
registers. Inactive virtual



memory.
shred's state is stored in




memory.


State management
The operating system
The operating system



saves/restores the
saves/restores all shred's



currently-running fiber's
application state on a



state on a context switch
context switch









Hardware Implementation

The implementation of a microprocessor supporting the multithreading architecture extensions can take the form of chip-level multiprocessors (CMP) and simultaneous multithreaded processors (SMT). The prior CMP and SMT processors try to hide the sharing of CPU resources from software, whereas when implemented with the present embodiments of multithreading architecture extensions, a processor exposes sharing as part of the architecture.
To implement a MAX processor as a chip-level multiprocessor, a broadcast mechanism is used to keep multiple copies of the system state in synchronization between the CPU cores. Fast communication busses are introduced for shared application and system state. Because on-chip communication is fast relative to off-chip memory, these communication busses give the MAX processor its performance advantage over a shared-memory multiprocessor.
Implementing a MAX processor as a simultaneous multithreaded processor is possible since the hardware already provides the necessary sharing of resources. It is possible to implement MAX almost entirely in microcode on a multithreaded 32-bit processor.
According to one embodiment, the present method and system permits the prioritization of system calls and exceptions (reported to the OS) among multiple shreds such that only one shred's request is serviced at any instant in time. Prioritization and selection of one request is necessary because the system state is capable of handing only one OS service request at a time. For example, assume that shred 1 and shred 2 simultaneously perform system calls. The prioritizer would ensure that only shred 1's system call was executed and shred 2's system call had not yet begun execution. For fairness considerations, the prioritizer employs a round-robin selection algorithm, although other selection algorithms may be used.
Scalability
Scalability of the MAX programming model is determined by:

    
    
        1) The amount of state that is feasible to save/restore on a context switch
        2) The reduction in parallelism that results from suspending all shreds associated with a given thread during a context switch
        3) Inter-shred communication
    
    


As the number of shreds increases, the amount of state that must be saved/restored on a context switch increases, and the potential parallelism that is lost as a result of suspending all shreds increases. These two factors will limit the practical number of shreds.
Inter-shred communication will also limit scalability since this communication is performed using on-chip resources. In contrast, the scalability of the traditional shared-memory multiprocessor model is limited by off-chip communication.
Shared Taxonomy
A taxonomy of the various degrees of freedom in architecture, implementation, and software usage of shreds is presented in the following table:










TABLE 7





Attribute
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3







Instruction set
Homogeneous -
Heterogeneous -



architecture
all shreds
shreds implement



implement the
different



same instruction
instruction set



set architecture
architectures


Microarchi-
Symmetric - all
Asymmetric -


tectural
shreds run on the
sheds run on


implementation
same hardware
different hardware



micro architecture
microarchitectures


Application
Sequential -
Parallel -


Parallelism
conventional
parallelized code



sequential code


shred
Programmer
Compiled -
Fixed


generation
generated -
shreds are
function -



shreds are
automatically
shreds are



explicitly created
created by the
dedicated to



by the
compiler
specific



programmer

functions





such as





garbage





collection


Architectural
Architectural -
Hint - some


correctness
all shreds
shreds contribute



contribute to the
to architectural



architectural
correctness



correctness of
whereas other



the program
shreds contribute




only to




performance


Input/output
Computation.
I/O. Shreds



Shreds perform
perform



only
input/output in



computation.
addition to




computation.









Two different types of MAX architecture are distinguished: homogeneous and heterogeneous. Homogeneous shreds are similar to homogeneous multiprocessors in that all shreds execute the same instruction set. Heterogeneous shreds are also possible in a similar manner as heterogeneous multiprocessors. For example, heterogeneous shreds may be constructed between:

    
    
        A 32-bit processor and a network processor.
        A 32-bit processor and a 64-bit processor.
    
    


Similarly, the underlying microarchitecture may be either symmetric or asymmetric. An example of the latter case would be a chip-level multiprocessor containing a few large, high-performance CPU cores and many small, low-power CPU cores, such as illustrated in FIG. 4.
Usage Models
The following table summarizes a number of usage models for embodiments of the present multithreading architecture extensions:










TABLE 8





Usage Model
Taxonomy
Description
Benefit







Prefetch
Homogeneous ISA,
A helper thread
Speeds up scalar



sequential code,
prefetches memory
code with



compiler-generated,
locations in advance of a
significant time



hint, computation
main thread. The helper
spent in cache




thread is generated by
misses.




the compiler.


Replacement
Homogeneous ISA,
The shreds are used in
Speeds up threaded


for
parallel code,
place of conventional
code. Thread


conventional
programmer-
shared-memory threads.
primitives become


threads
generated,
A library provides thread
several orders of



architectural,
services instead of the
magnitude faster.



computation
operating system.


Dedicated
Homogeneous ISA,
Compiler creates
Compiler has direct


execution
sequential code,
multiple shreds from
control over


resources for
compiler-generated,
scalar source code.
shreds.


compiler
architectural,



computation


Dedicated
Homogeneous ISA,
shreds are dedicated to
Translation and


threads for
fixed-function,
managed runtime
garbage collection


managed
architectural,
functions. For example,
shreds become


runtime
computation
just-in-time translation
essentially free.


environments

and garbage collection




may be performed using




dedicated shreds.


Parallel
Homogeneous ISA,
Programmer creates
Thread primitives


programming
parallel code,
parallel code which is
are fast enough to


languages
programmer-
compiled into multiple
be used as



generated,
shreds.
instructions.



architectural,



computation


CPU with
Heterogeneous ISA,
I/O functions are
Enables integration


integrated I/O
parallel code,
performed directly by
of I/O functionality


functions
programmer generated,
the application program.
directly into CPU



architectural,
For example, graphics
architecture.



input/output
and network processing.


Simultaneous
Heterogeneous ISA,
A single CPU
Interesting


Multi-ISA
asymmetric uarch,
implements multiple
possibility, but not


CPU
programmer generated,
ISAs, for example, 32-
likely useful.



architectural,
bit architecture and 64-



computation
bit architecture. Each




ISA is available to the




programmer as a shred.


Asymmetrical
Homogeneous ISA,
A CMP implements a
Achieve good


core
asymmetric uarch,
mix of cores, for
scalar and


multiprocessor
architectural,
example, high
throughput



computation
performance and low
performance.




power.









Prefetch

In the prefetch usage model, a main thread spawns one or more helper threads which are used to prefetch cache lines from main memory. The helper threads are spawned in response to a cache miss on the main thread. Since a main memory access requires several hundred to a thousand CPU clocks to complete, execution of scalar code will effectively stop during a main memory access unless architectural provisions are made to fault on loads that miss the caches and proceed to main memory.
Replacement for Conventional Threads
Shreds may be used as a high-performance replacement for conventional threads by multithreaded applications. A user-level software library is provided to perform shred management functions (create, destroy, etc) that were formerly performed by the operating system. The library makes use of the shred instructions as well as call the operating system as needed to request additional threads. Calling a software library is much faster than calling the operating system because no context switch is necessary.
Dedicated Execution Resources for Compiler
The compiler may use the shreds in the same manner that it uses other processor resources such as registers. For example, the compiler may view the processor as having 8 integer registers, 8 floating-point registers, 8 SSE registers, and 4 shreds. By treating shreds as a resource, the compiler allocates shreds in an analogous manner to register allocation. As with registers, some mechanism is needed to spill/fill shreds to a backing store in the event that the application program requires more virtual shreds than hardware provides. In prior architectures, the flow of control is usually not regarded as a processor resource because there is only one.
Dedicated Threads for Managed Runtime Environments
In a managed runtime environment, shreds are dedicated to functions such as garbage collection, just-in-time compilation, and profiling. The shreds perform such functions essentially “for free” since the shreds are provided as part of the instruction set architecture (ISA). The ISA is the part of the processor that is visible to the programmer or compiler writer. The ISA serves as the boundary between software and hardware.
Parallel Programming Languages
MAX directly supports parallel programming languages and hardware description languages. For example, an iHDL or Verilog compiler directly generates code for multiple shreds because the source code is explicitly parallel.
The proliferation of threads made possible by chip-level multiprocessors lead to language support for multithreading. Such support is provided through calls to the operating system and run-time library. Language support for multithreading is migrated into mainstream general-purpose programming languages.
CPU with Integrated I/O Functions
The shreds are used to implement I/O functions such as a network coprocessor. One important difference between a network coprocessor implemented as a shred is that it appears as part of the CPU rather than as an I/O device.
In prior systems, when an application program requires I/O, the application program calls the operating system using an API (application program interface). The operating system in turn calls a device driver which sends the request to the I/O device. The operating system is responsible for queuing or serializing I/O requests from multiple application programs, ensuring that the I/O device processes only one (or a finite number of) requests at a time. This is necessary since the I/O device's state is global to the system, whereas the CPU state is time-multiplexed between multiple applications.
In an I/O device implemented as a heterogeneous shred, the I/O device's state is treated as an extension of the CPU's application state. The application program directly controls both the CPU's application state and the I/O devices state. Both the application state and I/O state is saved/restored by the operating system on a context switch. The I/O device is architected so that its state can be time-multiplexed between several applications without adverse effects.
Simultaneous Multi-ISA CPU
The 64-bit architecture is defined to include the 32-bit architecture application architecture as well as the new 64-bit instruction set through a mechanism known as “seamless”. Compatibility with the 32-bit architecture instruction set enables 64-bit architecture processors to run both existing 32-bit architecture applications as well as new 64-bit architecture applications.
Under the current definition, a 64-bit architecture CPU runs either a 64-bit architecture thread or a 32-bit architecture thread at any instant in time. Switching between the two ISAs is accomplished via the 64-bit architecture br.ia (branch to 32-bit architecture) and 32-bit architecture jmpe (jump to 64-bit architecture) instructions. The 32-bit architecture registers are mapped onto the 64-bit architecture registers so that only one copy of the state is needed.
It is possible to create a multi-ISA CPU in which more than one instruction set architecture is running at any instant in time. This may be accomplished by using a shred for the 64-bit architecture ISA and a second shred for the 32-bit architecture ISA. As with homogeneous shreds, distinct application state must be provided for both the 64-bit architecture shred and the 32-bit architecture shred. The 64-bit architecture shred and 32-bit architecture shred run simultaneously.
Having described the features of the present method and system to provide user-level multithreading through the multithreading architecture extensions described above, an embodiment for 32-bit systems is provided below.
32-bit Architecture Embodiment
Although described with reference to the IA-32 architecture, the reader understands that the methods and systems described herein may be applied to other architectures, such as the IA-64 architecture. Additionally, the reader is directed back to FIG. 5 to understand an exemplary execution environment, according to one embodiment of the present invention. A small number of instructions are added to the IA-32 ISA along with a number of registers 650-660 to bring the capability of user-level multithreading to IA-32.
The multithreading architecture extension consists of the following state:

    
    
        A model specific register 650 (MAX_SHRED_ENABLE) that is used by the operating system or BIOS to enable/disable the extensions.
        Three bits in the CPUID extend feature information that indicate whether the processor implements the extensions and the number of physical shreds available.
        Replication of most of the application state (EAX, EBX, etc) such that each shred has its own private copy of the application state.
        A set of shared registers SH0-SH7 655 that may be used for communication and synchronization between shreds.
        A set of control registers SC0-SC4 660 are used for shred management.
    
    


The multithreading architecture extension consists of the following instructions:

    
    
        Shred creation/destruction: forkshred, haltshred, killshred, joinshred, getshred
        Communication: mov to/from shared register 655, synchronous mov to/from shared register 655.
        Synchronization (semaphore): cmpxshgsh, xaddsh, xchgsh
        Signaling: signalshred
        Transition to/from multi-shredded mode: entermsm, exitmsm
        State management: shsave, shrestore
        Miscellaneous: mov to/from shred control register
    
    


In addition, IA-32 mechanisms are provided with the following functionality.

    
    
        The IA-32 exception mechanism exits multi-shredded mode and saves all shred state on an exception (when applicable)
        The IA-32 IRET instruction restores all shred state and returns to multi-shredded mode (when applicable)
        A user-level exception mechanism is introduced.

Configuration

    
    


A model specific register (MSR) 650 is used to enable the multithreading architecture extension. The MSR is described below.











TABLE 9





Register Address
Register Address
Register Name




(Hex)
(Decimal)
Fields and Flags
Shared/Unique
Bit Description







1F0H
496
MAX_SHRED_ENABLE
Shared
Bit 0 enables the






multithreading






architecture extension.






Initialized to 0 at reset.






The operating system or






BIOS must explicitly






enable MAX by writing a






one into this register.









Model-specific registers, such as shred MSR 650, are written and read only at privilege level 0. If the multithreading architecture extensions are not enabled, execution of legacy code is restricted to shred number 0.










TABLE 10







Initial EAX value
Information provided about the processor









1H
EAX Version Information




(Type, Family, Model, and Stepping ID)




EBX




Bits 7-0: Brand Index




Bits 15-8: CLFLUSH line size.




(Value .8 = cache line size in bytes)




Bits 23-16: Number of logical




processors per physical processor.




Bits 31-24: Local APIC ID




ECX Extended Feature Information




EDX Feature Information










CPUID

The IA-32 CPUID instruction is modified to return an indication that the processor supports the multithreading architecture extension along with a count of the number of physical shreds provided. This is done by adding three bits (NSHRED) to the extended feature information returned in ECX. The information returned by the CPUID Instruction is provided in the following table:










TABLE 11







Initial EAX value
Information provided about the processor









1H
EAX Version Information




(Type, Family, Model, and Stepping ID)




EBX




Bits 7-0: Brand Index




Bits 15-8: CLFLUSH line size.




(Value .8 = cache line size in bytes)




Bits 23-16: Number of logical




processors per physical processor.




Bits 31-24: Local APIC ID




ECX Extended Feature Information




EDX Feature Information










The Extended Feature Information Returned in the ECX Register has the following form:











TABLE 12







Bit #
Mnemonic
Description









18:16
NSHRED
Three bits that indicate the number of





physical shreds supported by hardware.





000: 1 shred/thread





001: 2 shreds/thread





010: 4 shred/thread





011: 8 shreds/thread





100: 16 shred/thread





101: 32 shreds/thread





110: reserved





111: reserved










If the multithreading architecture extension is not enabled (through the MAX_SHRED_ENABLE MSR), the extended feature information returns a value of 000 for NSHRED.
Architectural State
The multithreading architecture extension places all state into one of three categories.

    
    
        Private to each shred
        Shared among local shreds
        Shared among all shreds
    
    


A breakdown of the IA-32 state into each of the categories is shown above in Table 2. The shred's private state is replicated once per shred. The shred private state is completely private to each shred. Specifically, the architecture does not provide any instructions that individually read or write one shred's private registers from another shred. The architecture does provide the shsave and shrestore instructions to collectively write and read all shred's private state to memory, but these instructions are executed only in single-shredded mode. The shred's shared state is shown in Table 3 above.
A set of shared registers SH0-SH7 655 are used for communication and synchronization between shreds. These registers 655 are written and read through the MOV to shared register and MOV from shared register instructions. The SH0-SH7 registers 655 store 32-bit integer values. According to one embodiment, 80-bit floating point 625 and 128-bit SSE data 640 are shared through main memory.
A set of shred control registers SC0-SC4 660 are provided. These registers are defined as follows.









TABLE 13





Register
Name
Description







SC0
Shred run
SC0 contains a bit vector with one bit per



register
shred. Bit 0 corresponds to shred 0; bit 1




to shred 1, etc. Each bit indicates




whether the associated shred is currently




running or halted. When the




multithreading architecture extension is




disabled through the




MAX_SHRED_ENABLE MSR, SC0




contains a value of 1 indicating only




shred 0 is active.


SC1
Interrupt
The contents of SC0 are copied into SC1



shred run
when transitioning from multi-shredded



register
to single-shredded mode, and the




contents of SC1 are copied into SC0




when transitioning from single-shredded




to multi-shredded mode.


SC2
Shred state
SC2 points to the shred state save/restore



save/restore
area in memory. This memory area is



pointer
used to save and restore the state of all




running shreds on a context switch.


SC3
Shared
SC3 contains the empty/full bits for the



register
shared registers. Bit 0 corresponds to



empty/full
sh0; bit 1 corresponds to sh1, etc.



bits


SC4
User-level
SC4 points to the base address for the



interrupt
user-level interrupt table.



table base



address









The memory state is shared by all shreds. The breakdown of the EFLAGS register 615 is shown in the table below.











TABLE 14





Bit
Type
Replicated
Mnemonic
Description



















0
Status
Y
CF
Carry flag


2
Status
Y
PF
Parity flag


4
Status
Y
AF
Auxiliary carry flag


6
Status
Y
ZF
Zero flag


7
Status
Y
SF
Sign flag


8
System
Y
TF
Trap flag


9
System
N
IE
Interrupt enable flag


10
Control
Y
DF
Direction flag


11
Status
Y
OF
Overflow flag


13:12
System
N
IOPL
IO privilege level


14
System
N
NT
Nested task


16
System
N
RF
Resume flag


17
System
N
VM
Virtual 86 mode


18
System
N
AC
Alignment check


19
System
N
VIF
Virtual interrupt flag


20
System
N
VIP
Virtual interrupt






pending


21
System
N
ID
ID flag









Flags marked “Y” are replicated on a per-shred basis. Flags marked “N” have one copy shared by all shreds.
The 32-bit EFLAGS register 615 contains a group of status flags, a control flag, and a group of system flags. Following initialization of the processor 105 (either by asserting the RESET pin or the INIT pin), the state of the EFLAGS register 615 is 00000002H. Bits 1, 3, 5, 15, and 22 through 31 of this register 615 are reserved. Software should not use or depend on the states of any of these bits.
Some of the flags in the EFLAGS register 615 can be modified directly, using special-purpose instructions. There are no instructions that allow the whole register to be examined or modified directly. However, the following instructions can be used to move groups of flags to and from the procedure stack or the EAX register: LAHF, SAHF, PUSHF, PUSHFD, POPF, and POPFD. After the contents of the EFLAGS register 615 have been transferred to the procedure stack or EAX register, the flags can be examined and modified using the processor's bit manipulation instructions (BT, BTS, BTR, and BTC).
When suspending a task (using the processor's multitasking facilities), the processor automatically saves the state of the EFLAGS register 615 in the task state segment (TSS) for the task being suspended. When binding itself to a new task, the processor loads the EFLAGS register 615 with data from the new task's TSS.
When a call is made to an interrupt or exception handler procedure, the processor automatically saves the state of the EFLAGS registers 615 on the procedure stack. When an interrupt or exception is handled with a task switch, the state of the EFLAGS register 615 is saved in the TSS for the task being suspended.
Shred Creation/Destruction
A shred may be created using the forkshred instruction. The format is
















forkshred
imm16, target IP



forkshred
r16, target IP










Two forms are provided, one with the shred number as an immediate operand and a second with the shred number as a register operand. For both forms, the target IP is specified as an immediate operand whose value is relative to the beginning of the code segment (nominally 0), not relative to the current IP.
The forkshred imm16, target IP encoding is similar to the far jump instruction with the shred number replacing the 16-bit selector, and the target IP replacing the 16/32-bit offset.
The forkshred instruction sets the appropriate run bit in SC0 and begins execution at the specified address. Unlike the Unix fork ( ) system call, the forkshred instruction does not copy the state of the parent shred. A new shred begins execution with an updated EIP along with the current values of all other private registers. It is expected that the new shred should initialize its stack by loading ESP and retrieve incoming parameters from shared registers or memory. The forkshred instruction does not automatically pass parameters.
If the target shred is already running, forkshred raises a #SNA (shred not available) exception. This is a user-level exception as described below. Software either ensures that it is not trying to start an already running shred, or alternatively provide a #SNA handler that halts the existing shred and returns to re-execute the forkshred. A #GP(0) exception is raised if the shred number is greater than the maximum number of shreds supported by hardware.
To terminate execution of the current shred, the haltshred instruction is used. Haltshred clears the current shred's run bit in SC0 and terminates execution of the current shred. The shred's private state is retained even while halted. Since no mechanism exists for one shred to access another shred's private state, a halted shred's private state cannot be seen. However, the state persists and becomes visible when the shred again begins execution via forkshred.
To prematurely terminate execution of another shred, the killshred instruction is introduced. The format is
















killshred
imm16



killshred
r16










According to one embodiment, the shred number is a 16-bit register or immediate operand. Killshred clears the specified shred's run bit in SC0 and terminates the shred's execution. While halted, the shred's private state is retained.
If the target shred is not running, killshred is silently ignored. This behavior is necessary to avoid a race between killshred and a normally terminating shred. After executing killshred, software is guaranteed the target shred is no longer running. A shred is allowed to kill itself instead of performing a haltshred. A #GP(0) exception is raised if the shred number is greater than the maximum number of shreds supported by the hardware.
To wait until a specified shred has terminated (as indicated by the SC0 bit being clear), the joinshred instruction is introduced. The format is:
















joinshred
imm16



joinshred
r16










If the target shred is not running, joinshred returns immediately. This behavior avoids a race between joinshred and a normally terminating shred. After executing joinshred, software is guaranteed the target shred is no longer running. It is legal (but useless) for a shred to do a joinshred on itself. A #GP(0) exception is raised if the shred number is greater than the maximum number of shreds supported by the hardware. The joinshred instruction does not automatically pass a return value. To allow a shred to determine its own shred number, the getshred instruction is introduced. The format is:
getshred r32
Getshred returns the number of the current shred. Getshred may be used to access memory arrays indexed by shred number. Getshred zero-extends the 16-bit shred number to write to all bits of the destination register.
For all shred creation/destruction instructions, the shred number may be specified as either a register or immediate operand. It is expected that the execution of the immediate form may be faster than execution of the register form because the shred number will be available at decode time rather than execute time. With the immediate form, the compiler assigns the shred numbers. With the register form, run-time assignment is used.
The following table presents a summary of shred creation/destruction instructions.










TABLE 15







Instruction
Description









forkshred imm16, target IP
Begins shred execution at



forkshred r16, target IP
specified address.



haltshred
Terminates the current shred



killshred imm16
Terminates the specified



killshred r16
shred



joinshred imm16
Waits until the specified



joinshred r16
shred terminates



getshred r32
Returns the number of the




current shred










The forkshred, haltshred, killshred, joinshred, and getshred instructions may be executed at any privilege level. Haltshred is a non-privileged instruction whereas the existing IA-32 hlt instruction is privileged.
It is possible that the execution of a killshred or haltshred results in zero running shreds. This state (with 0 in SC0) is different than the existing IA-32 halt state. SC0==0 is a legal state, but not useful until a user-level timer interrupt is created.
Communication
Shreds communicate with each other through existing shared memory and through a set of registers introduced specifically for this purpose. Shared registers SH0-SH7 655 are accessible by all local shreds belonging to the same thread. The SH0-SH7 registers 655 may be used to pass incoming parameters to a shred, communicate return values from a shred, and perform semaphore operations. A software convention assigns specific shared registers 655 to each purpose.
Each shared register 655 has a corresponding empty/full bit in SC3. To write and read the shared registers 655, MOV to shared register 655 and MOV from shared register 655 instructions are used. These are summarized as follows:
















mov
r32, sh0-sh7



mov
sh0-sh7, r32










The instruction encodings are similar to the existing MOV to/from control register 660 and MOV to/from debug register instructions. The MOV to/from shared register instructions may be executed at any privilege level. These instructions assume that software explicitly performs synchronization using additional instructions. The mov to/from shared register instructions neither examine nor modify the state of the empty/full bits in SC3.
It is expected that the latency of MOV to shared register 655 and MOV from shared register 655 will be lower than the latency of loads and stores to shared memory. The hardware implementation is likely to speculatively read the shared registers 655 and snoop for other shreds writes. Hardware must ensure the equivalent of strong ordering when writing to the shared registers 655. In an alternate embodiment, barrier instructions can be created for accessing the shared registers 655.
One architecture feature keeps shared register ordering and memory ordering separate from each other. Thus, if a shred writes to a shared register 655 and then writes to memory 120, there is no guarantee that the shared register 655 contents will be visible before the shared memory contents. The reason for this definition is to enable high-speed access/update of loop counters in the shared registers 655, without creating unnecessary memory barriers. If software requires barriers on both shared registers 655 and memory, software should perform both a shared register semaphore along with a memory semaphore. The memory semaphore is redundant except for acting as a barrier.
To provide rapid communication as well as synchronization, the synchronous mov to/from shared register instructions are used. These instructions are summarized as follows:
















syncmov
r32, sh0-sh7



syncmov
sh0-sh7, r32










The instruction encodings parallel the existing MOV to/from control register 660 and MOV to/from debug register instructions. The synchronous mov to shared register 655 is similar to its asynchronous counterpart except that it waits until the empty/full bit indicates empty before writing to the shared register 655. After writing to the shared register 655, the empty/full bit is set to full. The synchronous mov from shared register 655 is similar to its asynchronous counterpart except that it waits until the empty/full bit indicates full before reading from the shared register 655. After reading from the shared register 655, the empty/full bit is cleared to empty.
The empty/full bits may be initialized with a move to SC3 as described below. The synchronous MOV to/from shared register instructions may be executed at any privilege level. The shared register communication instructions are summarized below:










TABLE 16







Instruction
Description









mov r32, sh0-sh7
Move from shared register.



mov sh0-sh7, r32
Move to shared register



syncmov r32, sh0-sh7
Synchronous move from




shared register



syncmov sh0-sh7, r32
Synchronous move to shared




register










Synchronization

A set of synchronization primitives operate on the shared registers 655. The synchronization primitives are similar to existing semaphore instructions except that they operate on the shared registers 655 rather than memory. The instructions are as follows.










TABLE 17







Instruction
Description









cmpxchgsh
Compare shared register with r32. If equal, ZF is



sh0-sh7,
set and r32 is loaded into shared register. Else



r32
clear ZF and load shared register into EAX.



xaddsh
Exchange shared register with r32. Then add r32



sh0-sh7,
to shared register. This instruction may be used



r32
with the LOCK prefix to enable atomic operation.



xchgsh
Exchange shared register with r32. This



sh0-sh7,
instruction is always atomic.



r32










The synchronization primitives are executed at any privilege level. These instructions neither examine nor modify the state of the empty/full bits in SC3.
Enter/Exit Multi-Shredded Mode
The MAX architecture provides a mechanism to switch between multi-shredded and single-shredded modes. Single-shredded mode enables the processor to perform context switches in an orderly fashion by halting the execution of all but one shred. SC0 indicates the current operating mode as follows:

    
    
        SC0 containing exactly a single “1” in any bit position implies single-shredded mode
        SC0 containing anything other than a single “1” in any bit position implies multi-shredded mode.
    
    


To perform a context switch, it is necessary to:

    
    
        1) Suspend all but one shreds by switching to single-shredded mode
        2) Save the shred state
        3) Load a new shred state
        4) Resume execution of all shreds by switching to multi-shredded mode
    
    


The entermsm and exitmsm instructions are used to switch to multi-shredded and single-shredded modes, respectively. Entermsm is used to enter multi-shredded mode. The state of all shreds must be loaded prior to execution of this instruction. Entermsm copies the new shred run vector in SC1 into SC0. Entermsm then starts the specified shreds.
It is possible that the contents of SC1 result in no additional shreds being run after execution of entermsm. In this case, the processor remains in single-shredded mode. It is also possible that as a result of executing entermsm, the shred on which entermsm was executed is no longer running Exitmsm is used to exit multi-shredded mode. Exitmsm copies the present shred execution vector in SC0 into SC1. All SC0 run bits other than the one corresponding to the shred executing exitmsm are cleared. All shreds other than the shred executing exitmsm are halted. These operations are performed as an atomic sequence. The SC0 state indicates single-shredded mode. Entermsm and exitmsm may be executed at any privilege level.
State Management
The instructions (shsave and shrestore) are used to save and restore the collective shred state, to write the contents of all shreds private state to memory, and read the contents of all shreds private state from memory, respectively. The format is
















shsave
m16384



shrestore
m16384










The address of the memory save area is specified as a displacement in the instruction. The address is aligned on a 16-byte boundary. The memory save area is 16 KBytes to allow for future expansion. The memory save area extends the existing FXSAVE/FXRESTOR format by adding the integer registers. The memory save area for each shred is defined as follows:








TABLE 18





Offset
Register







0-1
FCW


2-3
FSW


4-5
FTW


6-7
FOP


 8-11
FIP


12-13
CS


14-15
Reserved


16-19
FPU DP


20-21
DS


22-23
Reserved


24-27
MXCSR


28-31
MXCSR_MASK


 32-159
ST0-ST7


160-287
XMM0-XMM7


288-351
EAX, EBX, ECX, EDX,



ESI, EDI, EBP, ESP


352-359
ES, FS, GS, SS


360-367
EIP


368-371
EFLAGS









The contents of all shreds are saved/restored at an address given by:

address=512*(shred number)+(base address)

The memory save area includes the EIP and ESP of the currently-running shred. Shsave writes the current EIP and ESP to the memory. To avoid branching, the shrestore instruction does not overwrite the current shred's EIP or ESP. The shrestore function, when executed as part of an IRET, does overwrite the current shred's EIP and ESP.
Shsave and shrestore may by executed at any privilege level, but only while in single-shredded mode. A #GP(0) exception is raised if shsave or shrestore are attempted when in multi-shredded mode. Implementations are free to use all available hardware resources to execute the shsave/shrestore store/load operations in parallel.
Shrestore unconditionally loads the state of all shreds from memory. This behavior is necessary to ensure that a shred's private state does not leak from one task to the next. Shsave may unconditionally or conditionally store the state of all shreds to memory. An implementation may maintain non-architecturally visible dirty bits to skip some or all of the shsave store operations if the private state was not modified.
The shsave and shrestore instructions save and restore only the shred's private state. The operating system is responsible for saving and restoring the shared registers 655.
Move to/from Shred Control Registers 660
Instructions are provided to write and read the shred control registers SC0-SC4 660. These are summarized as follows:
















mov
r32, sc0-sc4



mov
sc0-sc4, r32










The instruction encodings are similar to the existing MOV to/from control register 660 and MOV to/from debug register instructions. The MOV to/from shred control register instructions may be executed at any privilege level. Safeguards are provided to ensure that a malicious application program cannot affect any processes other than itself by writing to the shred control registers.
The application program uses forkshred and joinshred rather than manipulating the contents of SC0 directly. Exitmsm can transition from multi-shredded mode to single-shredded mode in an atomic manner. Using mov from SC0 to read the present shred run status and then using mov to SC0 to write a shred run status will not give the desired results because the shred run status may change between the read and the write.
Operating System Exceptions
MAX has several implications for the IA-32 exception mechanism. First, a user-level exception mechanism enables several types of exceptions to be reported directly to the shred that raised them. This mechanism is described below.
Next, the IA-32 exception mechanism is modified to properly handle multiple shreds in the presence of exceptions that require a context switch. One problem with prior IA-32 exception mechanism is that it is defined to automatically save and restore CS, EIP, SS, ESP, and EFLAGS for exactly one running thread.
The existing IA-32 exception mechanism is extended to include the functionality of the entermsm, exitmsm, shsave, and shrestore instructions. When an interrupt or exception is raised that requires a context switch, the exception mechanism does the following:

    
    
        1) Exit multi-shredded mode by performing an exitmsm. Exitmsm halts all shreds other than the one causing the interrupt or exception. The operating system is entered using the shred that caused the interrupt or exception.
        2) Save all shred's current state to memory by performing a shsave at a starting address given by SC2.
        3) Perform the IA-32 context switch as presently defined.
    
    


To return to a multi-shredded program, a modified IRET instruction performs the following:

    
    
        1) Performs the IA-32 context switch as presently defined;
        2) Restores all shred's current state from memory by performing a shrestore at a starting address given by SC2. This overwrites the EIP and ESP saved in the IA-32 context switch.
        3) Enters multi-shredded mode by performing an entermsm. Depending on the state of SC1, the execution of entermsm may cause the processor to remain in single-shredded mode.
    
    


The operating system is required to set up the shred state save/restore area in memory and load its address into SC2 prior to performing the IRET. The operating system is also required to save/restore the state of SC1, SC3, and SC4.
It is possible for multiple shreds to simultaneously encounter exceptions that require operating system service. Because the MAX architecture can report only one OS exception at a time, hardware must prioritize OS exceptions across multiple shreds, report exactly one, and set the state of all other shreds to the point where the instruction that raised the exception has not yet been executed.
User-Level Exceptions
MAX introduces a user-level exception mechanism that enables certain types of exceptions to be processed completely within the application program. No operating system involvement, privilege level transition, or context switches are necessary.
When a user-level exception occurs, the EIP of the next yet-to-be executed instruction is pushed onto the stack and the processor vectors to the specified handler. The user-level exception handler performs its task and then returns via the existing RET instruction. According to one embodiment, no mechanism is provided for masking user-level exceptions since it is assumed that the application will raise user-level exceptions only when the application is prepared to service them.
Two instructions are provided to create the first two user-level exceptions: signalshred and forkshred. These are described in the following sections.
Signaling
The signalshred instruction is used to send a signal to a specified shred. The format is:
















signalshred
imm16, target IP



signalshred
r16, target IP










The target shred may be specified as either a register or an immediate operand. The signalshred imm16, target IP instruction encoding is similar to the existing far jump instruction with the shred number replacing the 16-bit selector, and the target IP replacing the 16/32-bit offset. As with the far jump, the signalshred target IP is specified relative to the beginning of the code segment (nominally 0), not relative to the current IP.
In response to a signalshred, the target shred pushes the EIP of the next yet-to-be-executed instruction onto the stack and vectors to the specified address. A shred may send a signal to itself, in which case the effects are the same as executing the near call instruction. If the target shred is not running, signalshred is silently ignored. A #GP(0) exception is raised if the shred number is greater than the maximum number of shreds supported by the hardware.
The signalshred instruction may be executed at any privilege level. The signalshred instruction does not automatically pass parameters to the target shred. No mechanism is provided to block a signalshred. Thus, software may need to either implement a blocking mechanism before issuing a signalshred, or provide a signalshred handler that can nest.
Shred Not Available (SNA)
Forkshred raises a #SNA exception if the program attempts to start a shred that is already running. A software #SNA handler may perform a killshred on the existing shred and return to the forkshred instruction.
The #SNA exception is processed by pushing the EIP of the forkshred instruction onto the stack and vectoring to an address given by SC4+0. The code at SC4+0 should branch to the actual handler. Exception vectors are placed at SC4+16, SC4+32, etc. Software reserves memory up to SC4+4095 to cover 256 possible user-level exceptions. The interrupt table in memory/SC4 mechanism is replaced with a cleaner mechanism at a subsequent time.
Suspend/Resume and Shred Virtualization
The multithreading architecture extension allows user-level software to suspend or resume shreds, using the instructions as follows. To suspend a shred:

    
    
        1) Initialize the shred state save area in memory. This is a memory area set up by the application program for the suspend action. It is different from the context switch shred state area pointed to be SC2.
        2) Send a signal to the shred pointing to the suspend handler. This is done via signalshred target shred, suspend handler IP
        3) The suspend handler saves the private state of the shred to memory using existing mov, pusha, and fxsave instructions
        4) The suspend handler performs a haltshred
        5) The original code performs a joinshred to wait until the shred has halted
    
    


It is possible that the shred may already be halted at the time of the suspend action. In this case, the signalshred is ignored, the suspend handler is never invoked, and the joinshred does not wait. The shred state save area in memory retains its initial value, which must point to a dummy shred that immediately performs a haltshred. To resume a shred, the reverse operations are performed:

    
    
        1) Fork a shred pointing to the resume handler. This is done via forkshred target shred, resume handler IP;
        2) The resume handler restores the private state of the shred from memory using existing mov, popa, and fxrestor instructions; and
        3) The resume handler returns to the shred via the existing RET instruction.
    
    


When resuming to a thread that was already halted, the resume handler will RET to a dummy shred that immediately performs a haltshred. The suspend/resume capability opens up the possibility of shred virtualization. Before performing a forkshred, software may choose to suspend any existing shred with the same shred number. After performing a joinshred, software may choose to resume any existing shred with the same shred number. Because the suspend/resume sequences are not re-entrant, a software critical section is necessary to ensure that only one suspend/resume is executed for any given shred at any given time. Using these mechanisms, it is possible for the application program to create its own pre-emptive shred scheduler.
In alternate embodiments of MAX, an instruction exists to fork using the first available shred (allocforkshred r32), where r32 is written with the shred number allocated (in forkshred, r32 specifies the shred number to fork). Allocforkshred also returns a flag indicating if there are any available hardware shreds.
In another embodiment, a wait shred instruction provides wait synchronization using shared registers (waitshred sh0-sh7, imm). The wait instruction provides wait functionality as an instruction. Without this instruction, a loop must be used, such as:
loop: mov eax, sh0
and eax, mask
jz loop
In another embodiment joinshred is given a bitmask to wait on multiple shreds. Without the bitmask, joinshred waits for one shred to terminate. Multiple joinshreds are required to wait on multiple shreds.
In an alternate embodiment, the killshred is not used. Signalshred followed by joinshred may be used instead of killshred. The signalshred handler consists of the haltshred instruction.
In yet another embodiment it is possible to combine forkshred and signalshred. Forkshred and signalshred differ only in their behavior with regard to whether a shred is currently running or halted. If signalshred is allowed to start a halted shred, signalshred can potentially replace forkshred.
FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process of user-level multithreading, according to one embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that an application or software program initiated the following process. The following process is not described in connection with any particular program, but instead as one embodiment of user-level multithreading achieved by the instructions and architecture described above. Additionally, the following process is performed in conjunction with an ISA of a microprocessor, such as a multiprocessor, whether of 16, 32, 64, 128 or higher bit architecture. A multiprocessor (such as processor 105) initializes values in shared registers, e.g., the registers of table 3 above. (processing block 705) Processor 105 executes a forkshred instruction that creates a shred. (processing block 710) Concurrent operations are performed by processor 105. A main (parent) shred is executed by processor 105. (processing block 715) The join shred operation is executed to wait for the new target shred to complete execution. (processing block 730) Meanwhile, the new target shred initializes it stack, retrieves incoming parameters from shared registers and/or memory (processing block 720) and executes. (processing block 721) The execution of the current target shred is terminated, using the haltshred instruction. (processing block 723) The processor 105 returns execution results to the program or application from the registers in which the shred's execution results are stored. (processing block 735) The process completes once all executed data is returned. (termination block 799)
A method and system to provide user-level multithreading are disclosed. Although the present embodiments of the invention have been described with respect to specific examples and subsystems, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the present embodiments of the invention are not limited to these specific examples or subsystems but extends to other embodiments as well. The present embodiments of the invention include all of these other embodiments as specified in the claims that follow.

## Claims

1. A multi-threaded processor for executing multiple threads comprising:
a first shared state structure including a first group of control registers configured to hold control information to be shared by a first private thread and a second private thread, and one or more registers accessible to a user-level instruction, wherein the one or more registers is user-configured using an application programmable bit-vector to select said one or more registers to provide bidirectional read/write communication between the first private thread and the second private thread;
a first private state structure including instruction pointer logic configured to hold an instruction pointer for the first private thread and general purpose registers configured to hold general purpose information for the first private thread;
a second private state structure including instruction pointer logic configured to hold an instruction pointer for the second private thread and general purpose registers configured to hold general purpose information for the second private thread;
thread logic configured to create the second private thread in response to a fork instruction encountered during execution of the first private thread, wherein the fork instruction is part of an Instruction Set Architecture available to users.

2. The processor of claim 1 wherein the one or more registers is atomically accessible to a user-level instruction to provide the communication between the first private thread and the second private thread.

3. The processor of claim 1 wherein first shared state structure includes a field, when set, to enable multithreading architecture extensions for user-level multithreading.

4. The processor of claim 1 wherein the one or more registers is configured to be atomically updated to synchronize data between the first private thread and the second private thread.

5. A multi-threaded processor system for executing multiple threads comprising:
a processing unit including,
a first shared state structure including a first group of control registers configured to hold control information to be shared by a first private thread and a second private thread, and one or more registers accessible to a user-level instruction, wherein the one or more registers is user-configured using an application programmable bit-vector to select said one or more registers to provide bidirectional read/write communication between the first private thread and the second private thread;
a first private state structure including instruction pointer logic configured to hold an instruction pointer for the first private thread and general purpose registers configured to hold general purpose information for the first private thread;
a second private state structure including instruction pointer logic configured to hold an instruction pointer for the second private thread and general purpose registers configured to hold general purpose information for the second private thread;
thread logic configured to create the second private thread in response to a fork instruction encountered during execution of the first private thread, wherein the fork instruction is part of an Instruction Set Architecture available to users; and

a dynamic random access memory coupled to the processor to hold operating system code.

6. The multi-threaded processor system of claim 5 wherein the one or more registers is atomically accessible to a user-level instruction to provide the communication between the first private thread and the second private thread.

7. The multi-threaded processor system of claim 5 wherein the first shared state structure includes a field, when set, to enable multithreading architecture extensions for user-level multithreading.

8. The multi-threaded processor system of claim 5 wherein the one or more registers is configured to be atomically updated to synchronize data between the first private thread and the second private thread.

9. A method for executing multiple threads comprising:
storing control information to be shared by a first private thread and a second private thread in a first shared state structure including a first group of control registers;
configuring one or more registers for communicating between the first private thread and the second private thread using an application programmable bit-vector to select said one or more registers;
communicating information in said one or more registers accessible through a user-level instruction to provide bidirectional read/write communication between the first private thread and the second private thread;
storing an instruction pointer for the first private thread and general purpose information for the first private thread in a first private state structure including instruction pointer logic and general purpose registers;
storing an instruction pointer for the second private thread and hold general purpose information for the second private thread in a second private state structure including instruction pointer logic and general purpose registers;
creating the second private thread in response to a fork instruction encountered during execution of the first private thread, wherein the fork instruction is part of an Instruction Set Architecture available to users.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the one or more registers is atomically accessible to a user-level instruction to provide the communication between the first private thread and the second private thread.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the first shared state structure includes a field, when set, to enable multithreading architecture extensions for user-level multithreading.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the one or more registers is configured to be atomically updated to synchronize data between the first private thread and the second private thread.

13. The multi-threaded processor system of claim 5 wherein the first private thread and the second private thread share a current privilege level and share a common address translation.

14. An apparatus, comprising:
execution resources to execute a first shared resource thread (“shred”) concurrently with at least a second shred in response to receiving a first user instruction;
system state hardware storage adapted to hold one copy of system state for the first shred and the second shred;
first private application state storage adapted to privately hold at least a portion of an application state for the first shred;
second private application state storage adapted to privately hold at least the portion of the application state for the second shred; and
a shared register configurable using an application programmable bit-vector to select said shared register to be directly accessible by a second user instruction from the first and the second shred to provide communication between the first shred and the second shred, wherein the shared register is not accessible to shreds that do not share an application state with the first and the second shred.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the system state hardware storage comprises a first register to enable an operating system or BIOS to enable multithreading architecture extensions for user-level multithreading.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the shared register comprises a first register to be atomically updated to synchronize data between the first and the second shred.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the execution resources include one or more processor cores capable of executing multiple shreds concurrently.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the shared register is to hold at least a portion of a state shared among the first shred and the second shred.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first shred and the second shred share a current privilege level and share a common address translation.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising logic to execute a user-level instruction to create the first shred.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the shared register comprises a first register to be utilized as a register semaphore to synchronize data between the first and the second shred.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising a group of registers to share a system state among the first shred and the second shred.

23. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising a group of registers, which does not include the shared register, to hold a private portion of a state to be associated with the first shred.

24. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising: a user-level exception mechanism to report an exception to the first shred.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising: an exception mechanism to report an exception to an operating system.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:
a mechanism to detect a first exception associated with the first shred and a second exception associated with the second shred;
wherein the exception mechanism includes a prioritizer to prioritize the first and the second exceptions;
and wherein the exception mechanism is further to report only one of the prioritized first and second exceptions at a time to the operating system.