MICROCOMPUTER/FLOATING POINT PROCESSOR INTERFACE AND METHOD FOR SYNCHRONIZATION OF CPU AND FPU PIPELINES

A computer system having a central processing unit (CPU) execution pipeline and a floating point unit (FPU) execution pipeline, the CPU pipeline comprising a plurality of pipestages and the FPU pipeline comprising a plurality of pipestages wherein each CPU pipestage has a corresponding pipestage in the floating point unit FPU pipeline, a method of synchronizing operation of the CPU pipeline and the FPU pipeline, the method including the steps of (a) providing instructions to each pipestage in the CPU pipeline, (b) providing the instructions to each corresponding pipestage in the FPU pipeline, (c) executing the instructions in the CPU pipeline, (d) executing the instructions in the FPU pipeline, (e) stalling the CPU pipeline in response to a stall condition, (f) stalling the FPU unit pipeline a predetermined number of pipestages after the CPU pipeline has stalled, (g) storing the state of execution of the floating point processing unit pipeline in response to step (f), (h) removing the stall condition and restarting the CPU pipeline, (i) presenting the data stored in step g to the CPU pipeline when it restarts, j) restarting the FPU pipeline at the predetermined number of pipestages after the CPU pipeline is restarted. A corresponding apparatus is also provided.