Devices and techniques for non-blocking external device calls are described herein. Specifically, when a processor receives an instruction with a no-return indication from a thread for a device, the processor can increase a counter corresponding to the thread based on the no-return indication. The processor can then continue execution of the thread without waiting for a return value from the device. When a return value is received for the instruction, the processor can decrement the counter. While the counter is not zero, the processor prevents the thread from completing (exiting).

A method of performing instruction marking in a computer processor architecture includes fetching instructions from a memory unit by a fetching unit in the computer processor architecture. Instruction groups for marking are determined. Fetched instructions are matched to instruction groups for marking. The fetched instructions are marked. Some of the marked instructions are selectively unmarked. The marked and unmarked instructions are forwarded to a queue of instructions for processing in the computer processor architecture.

Computing system and controller thereof are disclosed for ensuring the correct logical relationship between multiple instructions during their parallel execution. The computing system comprises: a plurality of functional modules each performing a respective function in response to an instruction for the given functional module; and a controller for determining whether or not to send an instruction to a corresponding functional module according to dependency relationship between the plurality of instructions.

Embodiments detailed herein relate to matrix operations. In particular, the loading of a matrix (tile) from memory. For example, support for a loading instruction is described in the form of decode circuitry to decode an instruction having fields for an opcode, a destination matrix operand identifier, and source memory information, and execution circuitry to execute the decoded instruction to load groups of strided data elements from memory into configured rows of the identified destination matrix operand to memory.

Embodiments detailed herein relate to matrix operations. In particular, the loading of a matrix (tile) from memory. For example, support for a loading instruction is described in at least a form of decode circuitry to decode an instruction having fields for an opcode, a source matrix operand identifier, and destination memory information, and execution circuitry to execute the decoded instruction to store each data element of configured rows of the identified source matrix operand to memory based on the destination memory information.

In an embodiment, a local memory dedicated to one or more hardware accelerators in a system may include at least two portions: a volatile portion and a non-volatile portion. Data that is reused from iteration to iteration of the hardware accelerator (e.g. constants, instruction words, etc.) may be stored in the non-volatile portion. Data that varies from iteration to iteration may be stored in the volatile portion. Both the local memory and the hardware accelerators may be powered down between iterations, saving power. The non-volatile portion need only be initialized at a first iteration, allowing the amount of time that the hardware accelerators and the local memory are powered up to be lessened for subsequent iterations since the reused data need not be reloaded in the subsequent iterations.

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for mitigating or eliminating the effectiveness of a side-channel based attack, such as one or more classes of an attack commonly known as Spectre. Novel instruction prefixes, and in certain embodiments one or more corresponding instruction prefix parameters, may be provided to enforce a serialized order of execution for particular instructions without serializing an entire instruction flow, thereby improving performance and mitigation reliability over existing solutions. In addition, improved mitigation of such attacks is provided by randomizing both the execution branch history as well as the source address of each vulnerable indirect branch, thereby eliminating the conditions required for such attacks.

An indication of a function to be executed is obtained, in which the function is one function of an instruction and configured to perform multiple operations. A determination is made of an operation of the multiple operations to be performed, and a set of function-specific parameters is validated using a set of values and a corresponding set of relationships. The set of values and corresponding set of relationships are based on the operation to be performed. One set of values and corresponding set of relationships are to be used for the operation to be performed, and another set of values and corresponding set of relationships are to be used for another operation of the multiple operations.

A method of activating scheduling instructions within a parallel processing unit is described. The method comprises decoding, in an instruction decoder, an instruction in a scheduled task in an active state and checking, by an instruction controller, if a swap flag is set in the decoded instruction. If the swap flag in the decoded instruction is set, a scheduler is triggered to de-activate the scheduled task by changing the scheduled task from the active state to a non-active state.

Methods and apparatus relating to loop driven region based frontend translation control for performant and secure data-space guided micro-sequencing are described. In an embodiment, Data-space Translation Logic (DTL) circuitry receives a static input and a dynamic input and generates one or more outputs based at least in part on the static input and the dynamic input. A frontend counter generates a count value for the dynamic input based at least in part on an incremented/decremented counter value and a next counter value from the DTL circuitry. The DTL circuitry is capable to receive a new dynamic input prior to consumption of the one or more outputs. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.