Processor with dedicated virtual functions and dynamic assignment of functional resources

1. A method in a processor having a plurality of hardware resources comprising:

on at least one clock cycle:

setting a mode of the processor, the mode being one of a virtual function mode or a physical function mode;

if the mode of the processor is set to the virtual function mode, determining a plurality of virtual functions corresponding to the virtual function mode; wherein the virtual functions are configured to share the plurality of hardware resources among the plurality of virtual functions; and assigning each work store of a plurality of work stores into one of a plurality of virtual functions;

assigning the plurality of work stores into one physical function if the mode of the processor is set to the physical function mode;

on each clock cycle:

releasing any idle hardware resource to be available for any virtual function or physical function; and

dispatching work from any work store corresponding to any virtual function or physical function to any released hardware resources;

dispatching including arbitrating the work within each of the plurality of virtual functions to nominate corresponding work units and arbitrating among each of the corresponding work units to select a work unit for dispatch if the mode is set to the virtual function mode or arbitrating the work within the physical function to select a work unit for dispatch if the mode is set to the physical function mode.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hardware resources include processing cores.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the work stores include instruction queues.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual function can be a group of work stores, the group of work stores being at least one of eight work stores, sixteen work stores, thirty-two work stores, or sixty-four work stores.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein dispatching work further comprises utilizing a plurality of work execution masks, each work execution mask corresponding to a work store and configured to permit or exclude the work from its corresponding work store from being assigned to any hardware resource as to affect the quality of service among the hardware resources and a utilizing plurality of group execution masks, each group execution mask corresponding to a class of work and configured to permit or exclude the class of work from being assigned to any hardware resource as to affect the quality of service among the hardware resources.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical function is configured to share the plurality of hardware resources among the work stores if the mode is physical function mode.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual functions are further configured to share resources of the processor other than the plurality of hardware resources among the plurality of virtual functions.

8. A processor comprising:

a plurality of hardware resources, each hardware resource having a clock cycle;

wherein a mode of the processor can be set, the mode being one of a virtual function mode or a physical function mode;

a plurality of virtual functions corresponding to the virtual function mode;

wherein the virtual functions are configured to share the plurality of hardware resources if the mode of the processor is set to the virtual function mode;

a plurality of work stores, each work store assigned into one of a plurality of virtual functions if the mode of the processor is set to the virtual function mode, the plurality of work stores assigned into one physical function if the mode of the processor is set to the physical function mode;

wherein on each clock cycle, the plurality of hardware resources that are not processing work are released and available for any virtual function or physical function;

dispatch logic configured to dispatch work from any work store corresponding to any virtual function or physical function to any released hardware resources; and

an arbitration unit configured to arbitrate the work within each of the plurality of virtual functions to nominate corresponding work units and to arbitrate among each of the corresponding work units to select a work unit for dispatch if the mode is set to the virtual function mode or to arbitrate the work within the physical function to select a work unit for dispatch if the mode is set to the physical function mode.

9. The processor of claim 8 , wherein the hardware resources include processing cores.

10. The processor of claim 8 , wherein the work stores include instruction queues.

11. The processor of claim 8 , wherein the virtual function can be a group of work stores, the group of work stores being at least one of eight work stores, sixteen work stores, thirty-two work stores, or sixty-four work stores.

12. The processor of claim 8 , further comprising:

a plurality of work execution masks, each work execution mask corresponding to a work store and configured to permit or exclude the work from its corresponding work store from being dispatched to any hardware resource as to affect the quality of service among the hardware resources;

a plurality of group execution masks, each group execution mask corresponding to a class of work and configured to permit or exclude the class of work from being dispatched to any hardware resource as to affect the quality of service among the hardware resources.

13. The processor of claim 8 , wherein the virtual functions are configured to share the plurality of hardware resources if the mode of the processor is the virtual function mode, and the physical function is configured to share the plurality of hardware resources among the work stores if the mode is the physical function mode.

14. The processor of claim 8 , wherein the virtual functions are configured to share resources of the processor other than the plurality of hardware resources among the plurality of virtual functions.