Apparatus including a stall counter to bias processing element selection, and masks to allocate reservation unit entries to one or more processing elements

摘要

A method and apparatus for providing fairness in a multi-processing element environment is herein described. Mask elements are utilized to associated portions of a reservation station with each processing element, while still allowing common access to another portion of reservation station entries. Additionally, bias logic biases selection of processing elements in a pipeline away from a processing element associated with a blocking stall to provide fair utilization of the pipeline.