US Patent 7634591 Method and apparatus for tracking command order dependencies

Methods and apparatus for tracking dependencies of commands to be executed by a command processor are provided. By determining the dependency of incoming commands against all commands awaiting execution, dependency information can be stored in a dependency scoreboard. Such a dependency scoreboard may be used to determine if a command is ready to be issued by the command processor. The dependency scoreboard can also be updated with information relating to the issuance of commands, for example, as commands complete.