a method and apparatus for updating the architectural state in a system implementing staggered execution with multiple micro - instructions is disclosed . in the following detailed description , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention . it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that these specific details need not be used to practice the present invention . in other instances , well - known structures , interfaces , and processes have not been shown in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention . fig2 illustrates conceptually the operation of specified by a packed data macro - instruction being performed on the operands in a &# 34 ; staggered &# 34 ; manner according to one embodiment of the invention . although one embodiment of the invention is described with reference to a packed data operand format , the following description is also applicable to performing certain operations ( e . g . logical operations ) on a scalar data format . &# 34 ; staggered execution &# 34 ; in the context of this embodiment refers to the process of dividing a macro - instruction &# 39 ; s operands into separate segments and independently processing each segment using the same hardware . the segments are independently processed by introducing a delay into the processing of the subsequent segments . as illustrated in fig2 the packed data operands of an add instruction are divided into a &# 34 ; high order segment &# 34 ; ( data elements 3 and 2 ) and a &# 34 ; low order segment &# 34 ; ( data elements 1 and 0 ). the low order segment is processed while the high order segment is delayed . subsequently , the high order segment is processed and the full - width result is obtained . additionally , although the following embodiments are described as having add and mul execution units , alternative embodiments can use different execution units ( e . g ., one alternative embodiment uses one or more multiply accumulate ( mac ) units instead of the add and mul execution units ). while there are a number of different ways in which the staggered execution of instructions can be achieved , the following describes embodiments that decode macro - instructions into two or more micro - instructions to implement staggered execution . in one exemplary embodiment that supports macro - instructions that specify logical registers containing 128 - bit operands , each such macro - instruction is divided into at least two &# 34 ; staggered execution &# 34 ; micro - instructions that each operate on only half of the operand ( s ), the high and low order segments . in other words , each of the staggered execution micro - instructions respectively cause the operation specified by the macro - instruction to be performed at different times ( and in some embodiments , using the same hardware ) on the low and high order segments of the operands . in one embodiment , the following is performed : 1 ) the operands are divided into a high and low order segment when the staggered execution micro - instructions separately cause only half of the operands to be accessed from the logical registers ; and 2 ) each micro - instruction causes half of the resulting operand to be written into the logical destination register specified by the macro - instruction . the staggered execution micro - instructions generated for a given macro - instruction are referred to as related staggered execution micro - instructions . alternative embodiments may divide the operands in another manner ( e . g ., access and / or store the entire operand to the appropriate logical register at one time , but perform the operation specified by the macro - instruction one the half - width operands at different times ). in addition , while one embodiment is described in which 128 - bit operands are divided into two segments , alternative embodiments could use larger or smaller operands , and / or divide those operands into more than two segments . the term logical register is used herein to refer to the concept of the manner in which instructions specify a storage area that contains a single operand . thus , a logical register can be implemented in hardware using any number of well known techniques , including a dedicated physical register , one or more dynamically allocated physical registers using a register renaming mechanism ( described in further detail below ), etc . fig3 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating additions to a processor architecture that allows for independent updating of the architectural state by related staggered execution micro - instructions and that provides a precise exception model according to one embodiment of the invention . while fig3 conceptually shows various aspects of a processor , many well - known aspects of a processor are not illustrated because they are not necessary to understanding the invention . fig3 shows a macro - instruction 300 entering a decode unit 305 . since the macro - instruction 300 is one of a type for which multiple micro - instruction staggered execution is used , the decode unit 305 generates two staggered execution micro - instructions in accordance with the exemplary embodiment shown in fig3 . that is , responsive to the macro - instruction 300 that specifies an operation to be performed on a full width operand , the decode unit 305 generates a first and second staggered execution micro - instructions that each cause that operation on a different half of the operand . in processing the resulting staggered execution micro - instructions , the processor can perform register renaming and / or out of order execution . while the invention can be used with a number of different register renaming and out of order execution models , the invention will be described with reference to two different mechanisms respectively described in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 446 , 912 and 5 , 197 , 132 . regardless of whether register renaming and / or out of order execution are used , the processor receives macro - instructions in a given order and updates the architectural state in that order . as such , the order in which the macro - instructions were received must be maintained . various techniques can be used for maintaining the order in which the macro - instructions are received . for example , in an in - order processor in which macro - instruction order is maintained by the pipeline ( s ), related staggered execution micro - instructions can be grouped by either allocating consecutive stages in the same pipeline or dispatching to multiple pipelines at the same time . in contrast , fig3 illustrates an out - of - order processor . while various techniques can be used to maintain the order in which the macro - instructions were received , fig3 for illustrative purposes , includes an instruction order queue 310 . the instruction order queue 310 could be implemented using the reorder buffer of u . s . pat . no . 5 , 446 , 912 , the log of u . s . pat . no . 5 , 197 , 132 , or any other instruction order maintaining structure . the instruction order queue 310 is operated as a circular queue . as such , the instruction order queue 310 includes a head pointer 325 for identifying the next entry to be allocated , as well as a tail pointer 330 for indicating when the queue is full . in the systems of u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 446 , 912 and 5 , 197 , 132 , each macro - instruction is respectively allocated an entry in the reorder buffer or log in the order in which those macro - instructions are received . in this manner , a record of the order in which the macro - instructions were received is maintained . in contrast , the staggered execution of a macro - instruction requires that two entries in the instruction order queue 310 be allocated , one for each of the staggered execution micro - instructions . with reference to fig3 the first and second staggered execution micro - instructions are respectively allocated entries 315 and 320 in the instruction order queue 310 . fig3 also illustrates a retirement unit 340 that maintains a retirement pointer 335 . the retirement pointer 335 follows the head pointer 325 and identifies the current set of entries in the instruction order queue 310 being considered for retirement ( referred to as the &# 34 ; retirement window &# 34 ;). while different systems may attempt to retire different numbers of entries from the instruction order queue 310 at a time , one embodiment of the invention attempts to retire three entries at a time . whether using an in - order or out - of - order processor , certain issues are raised with respect to the updating the architectural state responsive to staggered execution micro - instructions . in particular , the architectural state must provide a precise exception model from the perspective of the programmer ( this includes the operating system programmer ). to ensure a precise exception model , a processor can be designed such that related staggered execution micro - instructions must update the architectural state together . requiring all staggered execution micro - instructions to update the architectural state together ensures that the architectural state is updated only if both micro - instructions are executed without generating any &# 34 ; non - recoverable &# 34 ; exceptions . a non - recoverable exception is defined as an exception that cannot be handled by the processor . thus , a non - recoverable exception does not include exceptions that can be handled by microcode and / or hardware , but includes exceptions that are visible to the programmer ( including the operating system programmer ). unfortunately , requiring staggered execution micro - instructions to update the architectural state together can reduce processor efficiency . in particular , there will be certain times when it is desirable to update the architectural state for the first micro - instruction at a different time than for the second micro - instruction . for example , assume the current retirement window includes the first micro - instruction but not the second micro - instruction . as another example , assume that the first micro - instruction completed execution , but the second micro - instruction has not . one aspect of the invention is to allow related staggered execution micro - instructions to update the architectural state independently while still providing a precise exception model . to maintain a precise exception model , if the processor is attempting to update the architectural state responsive to a first staggered execution micro - instruction separately from a related second staggered execution micro - instruction , the processor must be able to ensure that the second staggered execution micro - instruction cannot cause a non - recoverable exception . two categories of exceptions that are of concern include : 1 ) address exceptions ; and 2 ) numerical exceptions . with respect to address exceptions , in an embodiment in which a macro - instruction requiring a memory access ( read or write ) is decoded into two micro - instructions , each of the staggered execution micro - instructions performs the memory access for half of the width of the operand . to provide a precise exception model , it must be guaranteed that either of the staggered execution micro - instructions does not update the architectural state if either segment of the full width access will result in an address exception . therefore , to provide the precise exception model , rather than checking only the half width address respectively associated with the first and second micro - instructions independently , the full width operand address is checked in association with at least the first staggered execution micro - instruction . therefore , when the first staggered execution micro - instruction is ready to update the architectural state , it can be determined whether there was an address exception on either of the half width operand memory accesses . whether any part or the full width operand address is checked as part of processing the second micro - instruction depends on the implementation . for example , in implementations in which the first micro - instruction is guaranteed to be executed before the second micro - instruction ( e . g ., an in - order implementation , an out - of - order implementation that is modified to require related staggered execution micro - instructions that perform memory accesses be executed in - order , etc . ), operand address checking on the second staggered execution micro - instruction can be optional . as another example , in implementations in which related staggered execution micro - instruction that perform memory access can be executed out - of - order , either the half width operand or the full width operand address is checked as part of processing the second micro - instruction . fig3 shows a memory access unit 345 . the memory access unit 345 includes an address unit 350 that , for a given staggered execution micro - instruction , checks the full width operand address as opposed to the half width operand address for which that given staggered execution micro - instruction is responsible . the memory access unit 345 is incorporated into a processor using well - known techniques that are not further described here . fig4 is a flow diagram illustrating address exception checking for a single staggered execution micro - instruction according to one embodiment of the invention . in step 400 , the full width operand address is checked even though the single staggered execution micro - instruction only operates on half of the width of the operand . in particular , an embodiment in which the operands are 128 - bits , the address unit 350 performs a 128 - bit wide check . in one embodiment , step 400 includes checking for alignment faults , page faults , and segment limit violation faults for many types of memory access operations . however , certain instructions ( unaligned 128 - bit loads , partial loads ( loading only 16 or 64 bits of 128 bit operands ), prefetches , etc .) supported by certain embodiments do not require an alignment check . in addition , the full width address checking is performed by associating the address of the lower order segment with both the first and second staggered execution micro - instructions . to obtain the address of the high order data segment , the fourth bit of the aligned address is set to one ( equivalent to adding eight to the low order data segment address ). since the four least significant bits of an aligned address will be zero , in one embodiment the alignment is checked by testing the four least significant bits . as for segment limit violation and page faults , well - known techniques are used ( e . g ., the address from the low order segment is used as the base and the full width operand address is checked ). if any address exception is detected on the full width operation , flow passes to step 405 where the exception is recorded ( e . g ., in the appropriate entry of the instruction order queue 310 ). otherwise , flow passes to step 410 in which the fact that no address exceptions were generated is recorded . with respect to numerical exceptions , a numerical exception is typically not determined until the actual arithmetic operation is performed during an execution stage . however , the first and second staggered execution micro - instructions independently perform half of the arithmetic operation required by their parent macro - instruction . for each staggered execution micro - instruction , an indication as to whether any numerical exceptions were generated is stored in the appropriate entry of the instruction order queue 310 . therefore , one situation in which one staggered execution micro - instruction can update the architectural state independently is after the other staggered execution micro - instruction has completed execution without any exceptions . however , processor efficiency can be improved if a given staggered execution micro - instruction does not have to wait for the completion of execution of the other staggered execution micro - instruction . to this end , one embodiment of invention allows for the masking of numerical exceptions . when a numerical exception is masked , that exception is handled in a manner that is effectively invisible to the programmer ( e . g ., the exception is handled in microcode , with a special macro instruction routine designated for recoverable exceptions , etc .). in contrast , unmasked exceptions are those that are non - recoverable ( they are exceptions that the machine itself cannot correct ). fig3 illustrates an exception mask register 355 for storing data indicating which numerical exceptions are masked and which are unmasked according to well - known techniques . in an in - order processor , a similar technique can be used . while one embodiment is described in which the numerical exceptions can be selectively masked , alternative embodiments do not provide such a selection mechanism ( e . g ., certain or all numerical exceptions are always recoverable , certain or all numerical exceptions are always non - recoverable , etc .). in those situations where all numerical exceptions are recoverable , there is no need for a dependency between related staggered execution micro - instructions for purposes of numerical exception handling . referring again to fig3 the retirement unit includes a retirement delay unit 360 . when a staggered execution micro - instruction is up for retirement , the retirement delay unit 360 determines whether updating the architectural state must be delayed on account of the related staggered execution micro - instruction . in the embodiment shown in fig3 a staggered execution micro - instruction is detected by inspecting a check next operation field 312 . in operation , data is stored in the check next operation field for an entry to link one entry to the next . in one embodiment that generates two staggered execution micro - instructions per macro - instruction , logic 1 and 0 are respectively stored in the check next operation fields of the entries allocated for the first a nd second staggered execution micro - instructions , respectively ( see fig3 ). thus , a logic 1 in the check next operation field of an entry indicates that the next entry needs to be checked before the current entry is used to update the architectural state of the processor . while one embodiment uses a field in the instruction order queue , alternative embodiments could use any number of techniques ( e . g ., inspecting the opcodes in the instruction order queue , control bits associated with the first micro - instruction in an in - order processor , etc .). fig5 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for independently updating the architectural state responsive to related staggered execution micro - instructions according to one embodiment of the invention . in fig5 it is assumed that a staggered execution micro - instruction is ready to update the architectural state . in step 505 , it is determined if there are any address exceptions by inspecting previously recorded address exception data . with respect to fig3 step 505 is performed by checking the exception data stored in the instruction order queue 310 by the address unit 350 ( see steps 405 and 410 of fig4 ). as previously described , the address unit 350 checks for address exceptions on the full width operation . if there are address exceptions , flow passes to step 510 and the exception is handled according to well - known techniques . otherwise , control passes from step 505 to step 525 . as shown in step 525 , it is determined if all numerical exceptions are masked . as previously described , when all numerical exceptions are masked , any numerical exceptions generated by a related staggered execution micro - instruction will be recoverable , and therefore , will not result in an imprecise exception state . if all numerical exceptions are masked , control passes from step 525 to step 520 . in this manner , a staggered execution micro - instruction can be allowed to update the architectural state independently of the related staggered execution micro - instruction . by removing this restriction on the architectural updating process , processor efficiency is improved . in contrast , if at least one numerical exception is not masked , control passes to step 530 . of course , embodiments in which numerical exceptions cannot be selectively masked , step 525 is not required . while one embodiment is described in which delaying the updating of the architectural state responsive to a current staggered execution micro - instruction is based on whether a related second staggered execution micro - instruction has completed execution without any exceptions or on whether all numerical exception are masked , alternative embodiments can provide greater granularity with respect to which numerical exceptions are masked . in particular , assuming execution of a micro - instruction generates a masked exception , it is not guaranteed that the exception is recoverable because the servicing of certain exceptions can result in the generation of other numerical exceptions ( referred to as secondary numerical exceptions ). if such a secondary numerical exception is generated that is currently unmasked , a non - recoverable exception will be generated . for at least certain exceptions there is a limited number of possible secondary numerical exceptions ( in other words , the set of possible secondary numerical exceptions does not include all possible numerical exceptions ). thus , in one alternative embodiment , if a recoverable numerical exception ( e . g ., a masked numerical exception ) is generated upon execution of staggered execution micro - instruction , updating the architectural state responsive to a related staggered execution micro - instruction is not delayed for purposes of numerical exceptions if all of the secondary numerical exceptions that can be generated during the servicing are recoverable ( e . g ., masked ). in step 530 , it is determined if all the related staggered execution micro - instructions have completed execution without any exceptions . in particular , there will be times when the related staggered execution micro - instructions have already been executed , and therefore , any exceptions which may have been generated will already have been recorded ( e . g ., in the instruction order queue 310 ). if all of the related staggered execution micro - instructions have completed execution without any exceptions , control passes to step 520 . in contrast , if any of the related staggered execution micro - instructions may or have caused a numerical exception , control passes to step 535 in which the updating of the architectural state is delayed . by way of example , control passes from step 530 to step 535 if : 1 ) a related staggered execution micro - instruction has caused a numerical exception ; 2 ) a related staggered execution micro - instruction has not yet been executed ; 3 ) information regarding a related staggered execution micro - is not available , etc . by way a further example , the information regarding a related staggered execution micro - instruction may not be available in an embodiment in which the last operation in the retirement window is not provided access to the next entry in the instruction order queue ( no port to the retirement unit is provided from the next entry of the instruction order queue outside of the retirement widow ). in those cases in which updating the architectural state is delayed , the current micro - instruction will again be considered at the next architectural update opportunity . by way of example , in an in - order processor some sort of buffer area ( e . g ., buffer stage , temporary microcode register , etc .) is provided for the result of the first staggered execution micro - instruction until the second staggered execution micro - instruction is ready . while the described embodiment includes step 530 , alternative embodiments that do not perform step 530 can simply have control pass from step 525 to step 535 when all numerical exceptions are not masked . fig6 is a conceptual circuit diagram of the retirement delay unit 360 according to one embodiment of the invention . the circuitry shown in fig6 would provided in the retirement unit for each operation in the retirement widow , or one or more such circuits would be shared in a serial fashion by multiple operations in the retirement window . in fig6 the exception mask bits are provided to the input of and - gate 600 . assuming the exception mask bits are logic 1 when an exception is masked , the output of the and - gate 600 will be logic 1 when all exceptions are masked - when independent retirement is not prevented due to numerical exceptions . the output of the and - gate 600 is an input to an or - gate 605 . the other input to the or - gate 605 is a signal indicating whether the other related micro - instruction ( s ) have already completed execution without any exceptions . this signal is generated by collecting and anding bit ( s ) indicating completion of execution and bit ( s ) indicating no exceptions with respect to the subsequent entries ( e . g ., the next entry ) of the instruction order queue . as a result , the output of the or - gate will be logic 1 when independent retirement is possible . the output of the or - gate 605 is provided to an and - gate 610 through an inverter . the other input of the and - gate 610 is a signal indicating the status of the check next operation field for the current entry . in this embodiment , a logic 1 in the check next operation field indicates that the next entry of the instruction order queue 310 contains a related staggered execution micro - instruction . as such , all of the inputs to the and - gate 610 are logic 1 when the retirement should be delayed . while a conceptual circuit diagram has been illustrated in fig6 any number of different circuit configurations can be implemented . for example , in the above described alternative embodiment in which the last operation in the retirement window is not provided access to the next entry in the instruction order queue , there is no signal available as to whether any related micro - instructions outside the retirement window have been executed without causing any exceptions . the dual micro - instruction implementation of staggered execution is particularly useful when incorporating operations of a larger operand size into existing processor architectures . for example , one embodiment incorporates 128 - bit packed floating point operations into an existing 32 - bit architecture ( e . g ., the pentium ® ii processor ). in this example , the processor supports y new logical registers for storing packed floating point data . a packed floating point macro - instruction is converted into two half width ( e . g . 64 - bit ) staggered execution micro - instructions , namely a &# 34 ; high order operation &# 34 ; and a &# 34 ; low order operation .&# 34 ; assuming that the existing architecture performs register renaming using ( in part ) a register mapping table to map logical registers to physical registers , the logical source and / or destination registers of each staggered execution micro instruction are pointers to specific register entries in a new register mapping table ( e . g . a rat ) added for the y 128 - bit logical registers . the entries in the register mapping table in turn point to the location of the physical register ( s ) currently allocated for the logical source and destination register ( s ). according to one embodiment , in order to accommodate the half width high and low order operations described above , the new rat for packed floating point data is provided with y * 2 entries . thus , for example , instead of a rat with one entry for each of the y new logical registers , the rat has two entries for each of the y new logical registers . each entry is used for either the high or low half of one of the new 128 - bit logical registers . each of the high and low order staggered execution micro - instructions thus has associated entries in the register mapping table corresponding to the respective operands . each staggered execution micro - instruction retrieves and separately processes a 64 - bit segment of the 128 - bit operands . thus , at different times , the same 64 - bit hardware unit is used to execute the high and low order operations . in one embodiment , a new 128 - bit retirement register file is added for storing the architectural state of the y new logical registers ( e . g ., similar to the retirement register files in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 446 , 912 ). alternative embodiments can handle the architectural state in different ways ( e . g ., having y * 2 64 - bit retirement registers , each designated as high or low ; not using a retirement register file -- see u . s . pat . no . 5 , 197 , 132 ; etc .). in one embodiment , when a recoverable numerical exception is generated by a second staggered execution micro - instruction , the processor flushes the system before servicing the exception . assuming that the first staggered execution micro - instruction has already executed and is ready for retirement , different embodiments handle the previously generated result of the first staggered execution micro - instruction different way . for example , in one embodiment the result of the first staggered execution micro - instruction is flushed and the first staggered execution micro - instruction is re - executed with the second staggered execution micro - instruction . in alternative embodiments , the result of the first staggered execution micro - instruction is preserved so that the first staggered execution micro instruction need not be re - executed . any number of different mechanisms can be used for preserving the result of the first staggered execution micro - instruction ( e . g ., an additional temporary storage area to store the result , a mechanism to maintain the result in its current storage location during the flush , etc .) thus , a method and apparatus for independent retirement of staggered execution micro - instructions is disclosed . the specific arrangements and methods described herein are merely illustrative of the principles of the invention , and numerous modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention . although this invention has been shown in relation to particular embodiments , it should not be considered so limited . rather , the invention is limited only by the scope of the appended claims .