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:
Feb. 19, 2008
Filed:
Jun. 30, 2000
Reynold V. D'sa, Portland, OR (US);
Alan B. Kyker, Portland, OR (US);
Slade A. Morgan, Forest Grove, OR (US);
Rebecca E. Hebda, Sherwood, OR (US);
Richard A. Weier, Tigard, OR (US);
Robert F. Krick, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Reynold V. D'Sa, Portland, OR (US);
Alan B. Kyker, Portland, OR (US);
Slade A. Morgan, Forest Grove, OR (US);
Rebecca E. Hebda, Sherwood, OR (US);
Richard A. Weier, Tigard, OR (US);
Robert F. Krick, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides for a method and apparatus for the detection and prevention of and recovery from bogus branch predictions in a microprocessor. Micro-ops, decoded from a macro instruction, are stored in a decoded micro-op cache. Branch prediction logic determines whether a branch is bogus or not. If the branch taken was determined to be bogus, the present invention causes the micro-ops which descend from the original bogus branch micro-op instruction to be flagged and subsequently moved to the back-end of the processor for retirement. Further, the branch prediction logic (the branch prediction logic storage buffer) is updated as to what the actual direction of the branch was. In this manner then, bogus branches are detected, recovered from and further prevented.