Method and system to perform a thread switching operation within a multithreaded processor based on detection of a stall condition

摘要

A method of performing a thread switching operation within a multithreaded processor includes detecting dispatch of a first predetermined quantity of instruction information of a first thread, from an instruction streaming buffer to an instruction pre-decoder within the multithreaded processor. A stall condition relating to the first thread within a processor pipeline of the multithreaded processor is detected. The elapsing of a predetermined time interval subsequent to the detection of the stall condition is also detected. Responsive to the detection of the dispatch of the first predetermined quantity of instruction information for the first thread and the elapsing of the predetermined time interval, a thread switching operation is performed with respect to the output of the instruction streaming buffer.