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:
Jul. 17, 2001
Filed:
May. 29, 1998
Yo Nonomura, Yokohama, JP;
Sumio Kikuchi, Machida, JP;
Hitachi, LTD, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A branch predictor for predicting an instruction to be executed next to a conditional branch instruction in a program to read the predicted instruction beforehand. The branch predictor includes a hint acquisition section for acquiring a hint when a specified instruction controlling acquisition of the hint is executed wherein said hint indicates whether a branch is to be taken by execution of a conditional branch instruction with which termination of a loop is judged. The branch predictor further includes a hint store section for storing the hint acquired by the hint acquisition section, and an instruction read section for reading an instruction predicted as executed next to a conditional branch instruction in accordance with the hint stored in the hint store section. According to the invention it is possible to accurately predict a branch at the time of loop termination of the loop termination judging conditional branch instruction.