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:
May. 13, 2025
Filed:
Oct. 13, 2023
Ventana Micro Systems Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
John G. Favor, San Francisco, CA (US);
Michael N. Michael, Folsom, CA (US);
Ventana Micro Systems Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A microprocessor includes an instruction cache (IC) of architectural instructions (AIs) and a macro-op cache (MOC) comprising a MOC tag RAM (MTR) and a MOC data RAM (MDR) that holds macro-ops (MOPs) into which AIs have been translated. A MOC entry comprises one MTR entry and one or more MDR entries. A prediction unit (PRU) provides a sequence of fetch block descriptors (FBDs) in program order that describe a corresponding sequence of fetch blocks (FBlks). The PRU comprises a fetch block predictor (FBP) and the MTR which look up a corresponding sequence of fetch block start addresses (FBSAs) to generate respective hit indicators used to generate, for each FBD, a fetch source indicator (FSI) that indicates either the MOC or the IC. An instruction fetch unit (IFU) consumes the sequence of FBDs in program order and initiates a fetch of AIs/MOPs from the IC/MDR based on the FSI.