Branch prediction mechanism employing branch selectors to select

Details Branch prediction mechanism employing branch selectors to select Branch prediction mechanism employing branch selectors to select

1998-04-29

1999-10-05

Eng, David Y.

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing

Processing control

Branching

G06F 938

Patent

active

059616385

ABSTRACT:
A branch prediction apparatus is provided which stores multiple branch selectors corresponding to instruction bytes within a cache line of instructions or portion thereof. The branch selectors identify a branch prediction to be selected if the corresponding instruction byte is the byte indicated by the offset of the fetch address used to fetch the cache line. Instead of comparing pointers to the branch instructions with the offset of the fetch address, the branch prediction is selected simply by decoding the offset of the fetch address and choosing the corresponding branch selector. The branch prediction apparatus may operate at a higher frequencies (i.e. lower clock cycles) than if the pointers to the branch instruction and the fetch address were compared (a greater than or less than comparison). The branch selectors directly determine which branch prediction is appropriate according to the instructions being fetched, thereby decreasing the amount of logic employed to select the branch prediction.

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