US 11,755,324 B2
Gather buffer management for unaligned and gather load operations
Kimberly M. Fernsler, Cedar Park, TX (US); Bryan Lloyd, Austin, TX (US); David A. Hrusecky, Cedar Park, TX (US); and David A. Campbell, Austin, TX (US)
Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed on Aug. 31, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/462,620.
Prior Publication US 2023/0063976 A1, Mar. 2, 2023
Int. Cl. G06F 9/30 (2018.01)
CPC G06F 9/30043 (2013.01) 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for processing information in a processor, the system comprising:
a processing pipeline having one or more execution units for processing unaligned load instructions;
a memory for storing data, said data retrieved from the memory by an execution unit when processing an unaligned load instruction;
a gather buffer temporarily storing partial writeback data results retrieved from the memory, a partial writeback data result comprising a first part of an unaligned load data received from the memory when processing the unaligned load instruction; and
a gather buffer controller associated with said gather buffer, said gather buffer controller tracking the first part of the unaligned load data and tracking a second part of the unaligned load data to be collected at an arbitrary later time, said gather buffer controller comprising a plurality of entries, each respective entry storing a respective identifier tag associated with an address of an unaligned load data for identifying a respective unaligned load instruction, wherein the first part of the unaligned load data is retrieved from said gather buffer for merging with said second part of the unaligned load data to satisfy the unaligned load instruction.