Operand Prefixing for Short Instructions and Backward Compatibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional computing systems face challenges in including all necessary fields within short-length instructions, necessitating a need for extending instruction sets while maintaining backward compatibility.
Innovation Solution
The use of instruction operand prefixing mechanisms, including a prefix operand combinator and decoder, allows additional operands to be combined with existing instructions, creating extended versions without increasing instruction length, thereby enhancing instruction set extensibility and compatibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If traditional short-length instructions are used, then instruction length is reduced, but the ability to include all necessary fields for intended operations is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the instruction into two parts: a short base instruction and a separate prefix operand. The base instruction contains the core operation code, while the prefix operand provides additional source or destination registers. This segmentation allows the instruction to remain short for basic operations while extending functionality when needed through the optional prefix.
Solution Approach 2:
The instruction format is made dynamic by allowing the prefix operand to be conditionally included based on the operation type. Not all instructions require the full operand list, so the decoder dynamically determines whether to interpret the instruction with or without the prefix, enabling the same short instruction format to adapt to different operational requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If instruction set is extended to include additional operands, then operational capability is improved, but backward compatibility is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The prefix operand mechanism serves multiple functions: it can add source registers, add destination registers, or be omitted entirely for operations that don't require additional operands. This multi-functionality allows a single extension mechanism to support various operational needs while maintaining compatibility with existing instruction formats that omit the prefix.
Solution Approach 2:
The decoder performs preliminary analysis to determine whether an instruction should be interpreted with a prefix operand or not. By pre-determining the correct interpretation based on the operation code and context, the system ensures that existing instructions without prefixes continue to work as before, while new instructions with prefixes gain extended functionality.
3Adaptability or versatility
If additional operands are added to existing instructions, then operational capability is enhanced, but instruction decoding complexity is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The prefix operand acts as an intermediary element between the base instruction and the full operational requirements. Rather than directly handling complex multi-operand instructions, the decoder first processes the simple base instruction, then conditionally incorporates the prefix operand as an additional element, simplifying the decoding logic by building complexity incrementally rather than dealing with it all at once.
Data Source
AI summary
Operand augmenting instruction combinators, decoders, and techniques for augmenting instruction operands to existing instructions to create new combined versions of the instructions that are executed. Hardware, computer program products and methods use mechanisms and/or techniques that comprise replacements, substitutions, embeddings, modifications, and/or combinations to include additional source, destination or other operands into instructions by combining them into the existing instructions. Variations in techniques facilitate combining existing instructions with multi-operand prefixes including a condition prefix to convert the existing instructions into conditional execution instructions. instructions can also be augmented with a function, and/or a type and/or a hint to modify the instructions' functionality to handle a wider class of operand types or classes of data, that improve execution speeds, as well as improving instruction set extensibility while maintaining backward compatibility. Instruction extension capability facilitates rapid repurposing of highly used matrix and machine learning related instructions for deep learning models and algorithms.