PERFORMING STORAGE-FREE INSTRUCTION CACHE HIT PREDICTION IN A PROCESSOR

Performing storage-free instruction cache hit prediction is disclosed herein. In some aspects, a processor comprises an instruction cache hit prediction circuit that is configured to detect that a first access by a branch predictor circuit to a branch target buffer (BTB) for a first instruction in an instruction stream results in a miss on the BTB. In response to detecting the miss, the instruction cache hit prediction circuit is further configured to generate a first instruction cache prefetch request for the first instruction. The instruction cache hit prediction circuit is also configured to transmit the first instruction cache prefetch request to a prefetcher circuit.