(under subclass 220) Subject matter including means for storing volatile data contained in processor registers such that the volatile data can be restored at some point later in time.
(1) Note. This subclass is directed to the register level transactions necessary for preserving the context of an instruction or an instruction pipeline. Multitasking, context switching, and context swapping at the task or operating system level are classified elsewhere.
(2) Note. This subclass concerns itself with data in the pipeline at a point in time when a context swap is to be
performed. The control of the commitment of results to a register file or for bypassing results around a register file to functional units to alleviate data dependency is classified elsewhere.
(3) Note. Transactions with higher level memory in a digital data processing system memory hierarchy such as page swapping or write-back is classified elsewhere with the memory accessing and controlling art.
(4) Note. The term "windowing" also applies to operator interfaces and often includes logical operations at the register level. However, register windowing here is for instruction registers and instruction pipelines. Windowing for operator interfaces is classified elsewhere.
SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:
218, for commitment control or register bypass. SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
112+, for display attribute controller, subclasses 340+, for operator interface windowing.
709, Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Multiple Computer or Process Coordinating,
9, for context switching at the task or operating system level.
711, Electrical Computers and Digital Processing Systems: Memory,
3, for addressing cache memory; subclasses 141+ for cache coherency, specifically subclass 142 for cache write-through, subclass 143 for cache write-back, and subclasses 203+ for virtual addressing techniques.
