Providing quality of service via thread priority in a hyper-threaded microprocessor

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for providing quality of service in a multi-processing element environment based on priority is herein described. Consumption of resources, such as a reservation station and a pipeline, are biased towards a higher priority processing element. In a reservation station, mask elements are set to provide access for higher priority processing elements to more reservation entries. In a pipeline, bias logic provides a ratio of preference for selection of a high priority processing element.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to the field of processors, and in particular, to providing quality of service to priority processing elements. Background technique [0002] Advances in semiconductor processing and logic design have allowed for an increase in the amount of logic that can reside on an integrated circuit device. Consequently, computer system configurations have evolved from single or multiple integrated circuits in the system to multiple cores and multiple logical processors residing on individual integrated circuits. A processor or integrated circuit generally includes a single processor chip, where a processor chip may include any number of processing elements, such as cores, threads, and / or logical processors. [0003] In a processor with multiple threads, the behavior of one thread may affect the behavior of another thread on the same processor core due to resource and pipeline sharing reasons. A thread's behavior often creates unfai...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, higher priority threads / applications may require a greater and unfair amount of resources to ensure efficient execution

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