Hardware compilation and/or translation with fault detection and roll back functionality

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9317263-B2
Application number	US-201414513402-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 14, 2014
Priority date	Dec 30, 2011
Publication date	Apr 19, 2016
Grant date	Apr 19, 2016

Abstract

Hardware compilation and/or translation with fault detection and roll back functionality are disclosed. Compilation and/or translation logic receives programs encoded in one language, and encodes the programs into a second language including instructions to support processor features not encoded into the original language encoding of the programs. In one embodiment, an execution unit executes instructions of the second language including an operation-check instruction to perform a first operation and record the first operation result for a comparison, and an operation-test instruction to perform a second operation and a fault detection operation by comparing the second operation result to the recorded first operation result. In some embodiments, an execution unit executes instructions of the second language including commit instructions to record execution checkpoint states of registers mapped to architectural registers, and roll-back instructions to restore the registers mapped to architectural registers to previously recorded execution checkpoint states.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for deploying new processor features, the method comprising:
receiving an executable thread portion in a processor;
encoding the executable thread portion by recompilation, translation, or instrumentation to include one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features not encoded in the encoding of the executable thread portion, wherein said one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features comprises a roll-back instruction; and
executing the executable thread portion to utilize said one or more new processor features.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction comprises restoring registers mapped to architectural registers to a previous execution checkpoint state.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features comprises a commit instruction.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the commit instruction comprises recording an execution checkpoint state of registers mapped to architectural registers.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction and the commit instruction comprise speculative modification of state in registers mapped to architectural registers and restoration of those registers to a previous execution checkpoint state.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction and the commit instruction comprise fault tolerance and fault detection.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction and the commit instruction comprise virus detection.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features comprises an operation-test instruction.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the operation-test instruction comprises a fault detection operation comparing an operation result to a previous operation result.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein said one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features comprises an operation-check instruction.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the operation-check instruction comprises recording an operation result for a comparison by a future operation-test instruction.

12. An article of manufacture comprising:
a non-transitory machine-accessible medium storing data and instructions for supporting new processor features such that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to:
receive an executable thread portion in a processor;
encode the executable thread portion by recompilation, translation, or instrumentation to include one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features not encoded in the executable thread portion, wherein said one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features comprises a roll-back instruction; and
execute the executable thread portion to utilize said one or more new processor features.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction comprises restoring registers mapped to architectural registers to a previous execution checkpoint state.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 12 wherein said one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features comprises a commit instruction.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the commit instruction comprises recording an execution checkpoint state of registers mapped to architectural registers.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 14 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction and the commit instruction comprise speculative modification of state in registers mapped to architectural registers and restoration of those registers to a previous execution checkpoint state.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction and the commit instruction comprise fault tolerance and fault detection.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16 wherein said one or more new processor features supported by the roll-back instruction and the commit instruction comprise virus detection.

19. A processor comprising:
logic to receive an executable program portion, and encode the executable program portion by recompilation, translation, or instrumentation to include one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features not encoded in the executable program portion; and
an execution unit, responsive to said one or more new instructions to support the one or more new processor features, to execute:
an operation-check instruction to perform a first operation and record a result of the first operation for a comparison, and
an operation-test instruction to perform a second operation and a fault detection by comparing a result of the second operation to the recorded first operation result.

20. The processor of claim 19 wherein said execution unit, responsive to said one or more new instructions to support the one or more new processor features, is also to execute: a commit instruction to record an execution checkpoint state of registers mapped to architectural registers of the processor, and a roll-back instruction to restore the registers mapped to architectural registers of the processor to the execution checkpoint state.

21. A multiprocessor comprising:
logic to receive a first executable program portion, and encode the first executable program portion by recompilation, translation, or instrumentation to include one or more new instructions to support one or more new processor features not encoded in the first executable program portion; and
a first execution unit, responsive to said one or more new instructions to support the one or more new processor features, to execute:
a first commit instruction to record a first execution checkpoint state of registers mapped to architectural registers of the first executable program portion, and
a first roll-back instruction to restore the registers mapped to architectural registers of the first executable program portion to the first execution checkpoint state.

22. The multiprocessor of claim 21 wherein said logic is to receive a second executable program portion, and encode the second executable program portion by recompilation, translation, or instrumentation to include the one or more new instructions to support the one or more new processor features not encoded in the second executable program portion, the multiprocessor comprising: a second execution unit, responsive to said one or more new instructions to support the one or more new processor features, to execute: a second commit instruction to record a second execution checkpoint state of registers mapped to architectural registers of the second executable program portion, and a second roll-back instruction to restore the registers mapped to architectural registers of the second executable program portion to the second execution checkpoint state.

23. The multiprocessor of claim 22

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Chee Nicholas Cheng Hwa
• Fossum Tryggve
• Hasenplaugh William C

Classifications

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title

• G06F9/3863

  using multiple copies of the architectural state, e.g. shadow registers · CPC title

• G06F8/44 Primary

  Encoding · CPC title

• G06F9/462

  with multiple register sets · CPC title

• G06F9/3001 Primary

  Arithmetic instructions · CPC title