Speculative hybrid branch direction predictor
US6886093B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 4, 2001 |
| Grant date | Apr 26, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 3, 2023 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/3848
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus for speculatively predicting the direction of a branch instruction in a pipelined microprocessor in a hybrid fashion. A branch target address cache (BTAC) stores a direction prediction about executed branch instructions. The BTAC is indexed by an instruction cache fetch address. The BTAC is accessed in parallel with the instruction cache access, such that the direction prediction is provided before the actual instruction is decoded which is presumed to be a branch instruction corresponding to the direction prediction stored in the BTAC. In parallel with the BTAC access, a branch history table (BHT) is accessed to provide a second speculative direction prediction. The BHT is indexed with a gshare function of the instruction cache fetch address and a global branch history stored in a global branch history register. The BTAC also provides a selector that selects between the two speculative direction predictions.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.