US 11,842,196 B2
Obsoleting values stored in registers in a processor based on processing obsolescent register-encoded instructions
Thomas Andrew Sartorius, Raleigh, NC (US); Thomas Philip Speier, Wake Forest, NC (US); Michael Scott McIlvaine, Raleigh, NC (US); James Norris Dieffenderfer, Apex, NC (US); and Rodney Wayne Smith, Raleigh, NC (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Nov. 9, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/522,517.
Application 17/522,517 is a continuation of application No. 16/699,808, filed on Dec. 2, 2019, granted, now 11,188,334.
Prior Publication US 2022/0066779 A1, Mar. 3, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 9/30 (2018.01); G06F 9/54 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 9/30145 (2013.01) [G06F 9/30047 (2013.01); G06F 9/30101 (2013.01); G06F 9/30105 (2013.01); G06F 9/544 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A processor configured to:
receive a plurality of instructions in an instruction stream from an instruction memory to be executed, the plurality of instructions comprising at least one instruction that includes a register operand;
process an instruction among the plurality of instructions;
determine if the processed instruction includes an obsolescence encoding identifying at least one register operand associated with at least one register among a plurality of registers in the processor to be obsoleted;
in response to determining the processed instruction includes the obsolescence encoding identifying at least one register operand to be obsoleted, set an obsolescence indicator associated with the at least one register associated with the at least one register operand to an obsolescent state indicating the at least one register is obsolete;
determine if the processed instruction includes a source register operand;
in response to determining the processed instruction includes the source register operand, determine if the obsolescence indicator associated with a source register associated with the source register operand indicates an obsolescent state:
in response to determining the obsolescence indicator associated with the source register associated with the source register operand indicating an obsolescent state:
return a default value as a data value for the source register to be used to execute the processed instruction; and
execute the processed instruction using the default value as the data value for the source register named by the source register operand.