Report Number: CSL-TR-97-732
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: Efficient Exception Handling Techniques for High-Performance Processor Architectures
Author: Rudd, Kevin W.
Date: October 1997
Abstract: Providing precise exceptions has driven much of the complexity in modern processor designs. While this complexity is required to maintain the illusion of a processor based on a sequential architectural model, it also results in reduced performance during normal execution. The existing notion of precise exceptions is limited to processors based on a sequential architectural model and there have been few techniques developed that are applicable to processors that are not based on this model. Processors with exposed pipelines (typical of VLIW processors) do not conform to the sequential execution model. These processors have explicit overlaps in operation execution and thus cannot support the traditional notion of precise exceptions; most exception handling techniques for these processors require restrictive software scheduling. In this report, we generalize the notion of a precise exception and extend the applicability of precise exceptions to a wider range of architectures. We propose precise exception handling techniques that solve the problem of efficient exception handling for both sequential architectures as well as exposed pipeline architectures. We also show how these techniques can provide efficient support for speculative execution past multiple branches for both architectures as well as latency tolerance for exposed pipeline architectures.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/97/732/CSL-TR-97-732.pdf