Branch selector prediction

Details Branch selector prediction Branch selector prediction

1997-11-19

1999-09-21

Lim, Krisna

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing

Processing control

Branching

712233, G06F 938

Patent

active

059548169

ABSTRACT:
A branch prediction unit includes a branch prediction entry corresponding to a group of contiguous instruction bytes. The branch prediction entry stores branch predictions corresponding to branch instructions within the group of contiguous instruction bytes. Additionally, the branch prediction entry stores a set of branch selectors corresponding to the group of contiguous instruction bytes. The branch selectors identify which branch prediction is to be selected if the corresponding byte (or bytes) is selected by the offset portion of the fetch address. Still further, a predicted branch selector is stored. The predicted branch selector is used to select a branch prediction for forming the fetch address. In parallel, a selected branch selector is selected from the set of branch selectors. The predicted branch selector is verified using the selected branch selector. If the selected branch selector and the predicted branch selector mismatch, the correct branch prediction is generated and the predicted branch selector is updated to indicate the selected branch selector.

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