PROCESSOR HAVING INCREASED EFFECTIVE PHYSICAL FILE SIZE VIA REGISTER MAPPING

Methods and apparatuses are provided for an efficient technique for processing registers having a known value while improving processor performance. The apparatus comprises a processor having a plurality of physical registers available for use in computations and a decoder for determining that a logical register contains a known value. A renaming unit maps the logical register containing the known value to an address outside an address range for the plurality of physical registers once the known value is determined. Thereafter, scheduling and execution units perform computations using the known value without storing the known value in one of the plurality of physical registers. The method comprises determining that a logical register of a processor has a known value and then mapping that logical register to a physical register address outside an expected range of physical register addresses; which indicates that the logical register represents the known value. Thereafter the processor processes any instruction using the known value without storing the known value in a physical register.