Branch prediction method and related device

Abstract

A branch predicting method and a related apparatus. Applied in a server, the processor comprises: a first BTAC that stores information about a mapping between a register identifier and a predicted target jump-to address, and a second BTAC that stores information about a mapping between a field of a program counter and a predicted target jump-to address. The brand predicting method comprises: reading an instruction from an instruction buffer; if determining that the instruction satisfies a register prediction condition, obtaining a predicted target jump-to address of the instruction from the first BTAC according to a register identifier of the instruction; and if determining that the instruction does not satisfy the register prediction condition, obtaining a predicted target jump-to address of the instruction from the second BTAC according to a program counter of the instruction. Therefore, the problem that branch prediction accuracy is affected during BTAC sharing is effectively solved.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the field of computer systems, in particular to a branch prediction method and a related device. Background technique [0002] Most current processors use a pipeline structure, so that the sequentially executed instruction streams can be executed in parallel. This way of processing instructions greatly improves the execution efficiency of the processor. Ideally, each Stage of the pipeline (that is, the pipeline layer) only takes one clock cycle, so each clock cycle can complete one instruction. But the actual situation is not so ideal, because there may be mutual dependencies between instructions, which will affect the parallelism of instruction execution. Factors such as data dependence, control dependence (such as branch instructions), resource competition, interrupts, etc., will affect the parallelism of instructions. [0003] The actual program includes branch instructions. The branch behavior of the branch instruction i...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0010] Various aspects of the present invention provide a branch prediction method and related devices, which are used to solve the problem of affecting the accuracy of branch prediction when sharing BTAC

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