ALTERNATE PATH FOR BRANCH PREDICTION REDIRECT

Branch prediction circuitry predicts an outcome of a branch instruction. A pipeline circuitry processes instructions along a first path from a predicted branch of the branch instruction. The instructions along the first path are processed concurrently with processing instructions along a second path...

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Hauptverfasser: NAYAK, Bhawna, MANDKE, Aparna Chandrashekhar, HAVLIR, Steven, R, COHEN, Robert, LIN, Tzu-Wei, VENKATACHAR, Ashok, T
Format: Patent
Sprache:eng ; fre ; ger
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Zusammenfassung:Branch prediction circuitry predicts an outcome of a branch instruction. A pipeline circuitry processes instructions along a first path from a predicted branch of the branch instruction. The instructions along the first path are processed concurrently with processing instructions along a second path from an unpredicted branch of the branch instruction. Information representing the state of the second portion while processing the second path is stored in one or more buffers. The instructions are processed along the second path using the information stored in the buffers in response to a misprediction of the outcome of the branch instruction. In some cases, the branch prediction circuitry determines a confidence level for the predicted outcome and the instructions along the second path from the unpredicted branch are processed in response to the confidence level being below a threshold confidence.