IP Library Granted Patent US 10,127,013
Granted Patent B1
US 10,127,013 · App. 15/390,358 · Granted Nov 13, 2018

Specialized processing blocks with fixed-point and floating-point structures

Inventor: Martin Langhammer (Alderbury, GB)
Assignee: Altera Corporation
G06F7/4876G06F7/485H03M7/30
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,127,013
App. No.
15/390,358
Granted
Nov 13, 2018
Kind
B1
Abstract

Integrated circuits with specialized processing blocks that can support both fixed-point and floating-point operations are provided. A specialized processing block of this type may include partial product generators, compression circuits, and a main adder. The main adder may include a high adder, a middle adder, a low adder, floating-point rounding circuitry, and associated selection circuitry. The middle adder may include prefix networks for outputting generate and propagate vectors, and redundant LSB processing logic for outputting LSB generate and propagate bits. The middle adder may include additional logic circuitry for generating a sum output, a sum-plus-1 output, and a sum-plus-2 output. The specialized processing block may further include accumulation circuitry for support multiply-accumulation functions for any suitable number of channels.

Claims (48)

1. An integrated circuit, comprising:

a specialized processing block that comprises:

a multiplier network that generates redundant form output vectors;

a compressor that receives the redundant form output vectors from the multiplier network and that also receives additional vectors, wherein:

during a fixed-point mode, the compressor selectively uses the additional vectors to generate an output of the compressor; and

during a floating-point mode, a first portion of the redundant form output vectors bypasses the compressor while a second portion of the redundant form output vectors is routed through the compressor to obtain a floating-point output, and the compressor provides a value of zero at a rounding position of the floating-point output; and

a carry propagate adder that receives the first bypassed portion of the redundant form output vectors and the floating-point output from the compressor during the floating-point mode.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the compressor provides the value of zero at a least significant bit position of the second portion of the redundant form output vectors.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the compressor comprises a 3:2 compressor circuit.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the compressor comprises a 4:2 compressor circuit.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the carry propagate adder comprises:

a first adder that receives the first portion of the redundant form output vectors; and

a second adder that receives the floating-point output from the compressor.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 5 , wherein the second adder contains prefix networks.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 6 , wherein the prefix networks in the second adder includes a level-zero prefix network that receives only a subset of the floating-point output.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 7 , wherein the second adder further includes:

redundant least significant bit (LSB) processing logic circuits that only receive another subset of the floating-point output.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 8 , wherein the redundant LSB processing logic circuits comprises:

an AND gate for outputting a generate LSB; and

an OR gate for outputting a propagate LSB, wherein the OR gate receives a floating-point control signal.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 8 , wherein the prefix networks in the second adder further comprises:

a first reduced prefix network that receives signals from the level-zero prefix network;

a second reduced prefix network that receives signals from the level-zero prefix network and the redundant LSB processing logic circuits; and

a third prefix network that receives signals from the first and second reduced prefix networks.

11. The integrated circuit of claim 10 , wherein the second adder is configured to output a sum output, a sum-plus-1 output, and a sum-plus-2 output.

12. A method of operating a specialized processing block, comprising:

with a multiplier pipeline in the specialized processing block, generating redundant form outputs;

with a compressor circuit in the specialized processing block, receiving the redundant form outputs and first and second non-redundant form outputs, wherein the compressor circuit receives the first non-redundant form output at a first input terminal of the compressor and the second non-redundant form output at a second input terminal of the compressor that is separate from the first input terminal;

during a fixed-point mode, using the compressor circuit to process the first and second non-redundant form outputs; and

during a floating-point mode, using the compressor circuit to process only the redundant form outputs.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

with a carry propagate adder in the specialized processing block, receiving processed signals from the compressor circuit and the multiplier pipeline; and

routing at least a portion of the redundant form outputs to bypass the compressor circuit during the floating-point mode.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the carry propagate adder includes a first adder that generates a fixed-point output and a second adder that generates a floating-point output, the method further comprising:

with a level-zero prefix structure in the second adder, receiving a first subset of the redundant form outputs; and

with redundant least significant bit (LSB) processing circuitry in the second adder, receiving a second subset of the redundant form outputs.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

with additional parallel prefix structures in the second adder, receiving signals from the level-zero prefix structure and redundant LSB processing circuitry and outputting a sum output, a sum-plus-1 output, and a sum-plus-2 output.

16. An integrated circuit, comprising:

a digital signal processor that comprises:

partial product generation circuits;

a compressor circuit that receives signals from the partial product generation circuits;

a carry propagate adder circuit that receives signals from the compressor circuit; and

multi-channel accumulation circuitry interposed in a feedback path connecting the carry propagate adder circuit back to an input of the compressor circuit.

17. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , wherein the digital signal processor is operable in a fixed-point arithmetic mode of operation and in a floating-point arithmetic mode of operation.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , wherein the multi-channel accumulation circuitry includes at least two accumulation registers and a multiplexer for selectively bypassing one of the two accumulation registers.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , wherein the multi-channel accumulation circuitry comprises a first-in first-out (FIFO) circuit.

20. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , wherein the multi-channel accumulation circuitry comprises data storage circuitry interposed in the feedback path.

Assignments (3)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Sep 12, 2025
From: ALTERA CORPORATION
To: BARCLAYS BANK PLC, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 073431/0309 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 19, 2024
From: INTEL CORPORATION
To: ALTERA CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 066353/0886 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 13, 2017
From: LANGHAMMER, MARTIN
To: INTEL CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 041242/0292 →
Cited By (1)
US 12,695,888