REGISTER RENAMING OF A SHAREABLE INSTRUCTION OPERAND CACHE

A system and a method are disclosed to process instructions in an execution unit (EU) that includes an operand cache (OC). The OC stores a copy of at least one frequently used operand stored in a physical register file (PRF). The EU may process instructions using operands obtained from the PRF or from the OC. In the first mode, an OC renaming unit (OC-REN) indicates to the EU to process instructions using operands obtained from the OC if processing the instructions using operands obtained from the OC uses less power than using operands obtained from the PRF. In the second mode, the OC-REN indicates to the EU to process the instructions using operands obtained from the PRF if processing the instructions using operands obtained from the PRF uses less power than using operands obtained from the OC.