US Patent 11960898 Enabling asynchronous operations in synchronous processors

The technology disclosed herein enables a processor that processes instructions synchronously in accordance with a processor clock to identify a first instruction specifying an asynchronous operation to be processed independently of the processor clock. The asynchronous operation is performed by an asynchronous execution unit that executes the asynchronous operation independently of the processor clock and generates at least one result of the asynchronous operation. A synchronous execution unit executes, in parallel with the execution of the asynchronous operation by the asynchronous execution unit, one or more second instructions specifying respective synchronous operations. Responsive to determining that the asynchronous execution unit has generated the at least one result of the asynchronous operation, the processor receives the at least one result of the asynchronous operation.