The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 2021
Filed:
Aug. 15, 2019
Arm Limited, Cambridge, GB;
Luc Orion, Mouans Sartoux, FR;
Houdhaifa Bouzguarrou, Valbonne, FR;
Guillaume Bolbenes, Antibes, FR;
Eddy Lapeyre, Antibes, FR;
Arm Limited, Cambridge, GB;
Abstract
Branch prediction circuitry comprises: a return address prediction structure to store at least one predicted return address; and a branch target buffer (BTB) structure comprising entries each for specifying predicted branch information for a corresponding block of instructions. Within at least a subset of entries of the BTB structure, each entry specifies the predicted branch information with an encoding incapable of simultaneously indicating both: that the corresponding block of instructions is predicted to include a return branch instruction (for which the return address prediction structure is used to predict the target address); and the predicted target address for the return branch instruction. This can provide a more efficient BTB structure which requires less circuit area and power for a given level of branch prediction performance.