Autonomic method and apparatus for counting branch...

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing – Processing control – Branching

Reexamination Certificate

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C712S240000, C712S239000

Reexamination Certificate

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10757237

ABSTRACT:
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for autonomically counting selected branch instructions executed in a processor to improve branch predictions. Counters are provided to count branch instructions that are executed in a processor to collect branch statistics. A set of branch statistics fields is allocated to associate with a branch instruction. When a program is executed, the stored statistics allows the program to look at the branch statistics in the counter to perform branch prediction. Hence, a user may use branch statistics values from the hardware counter to perform analysis on application code.

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