data storage skip

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques in which an indication is included to indicate that an intermediate value produced as part of determining a final value was last used and not stored in a general purpose register, GPR. A processing unit avoids storing the intermediate value in the GPR based on the indication, because the intermediate value is no longer needed to determine the final value.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to data storage, and more particularly to data storage techniques in general purpose registers (GPRs). Background technique [0002] A processing unit, such as a graphics processing unit (GPU), includes a processing core with general purpose registers (GPRs) that store data resulting from the execution of instructions or data required to execute the instructions. For example, the processing elements of the processing core include an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs a number of arithmetic operations. The GPR may store a result of the arithmetic operation and / or store operands of the arithmetic operation. [0003] The GPR may be local to a processor core of a processing unit. Thus, accessing a GPR may require less power than accessing a local cache or external system memory. Although more power efficient than local cache memory or external system memory, storing data to a GPR does consume power. Contents of t...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Although more power efficient than local cache memory or external system memory, storing data to the GPR does consume power

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