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. 15, 2012
Filed:
Sep. 05, 2008
Gerald D. Zuraski, Jr., Austin, TX (US);
James D. Dundas, Austin, TX (US);
Anthony X. Jarvis, Acton, MA (US);
Gerald D. Zuraski, Jr., Austin, TX (US);
James D. Dundas, Austin, TX (US);
Anthony X. Jarvis, Acton, MA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for branch prediction in a microprocessor. A hybrid device stores branch prediction information in a sparse cache for no more than a common smaller number of branches within each entry of the instruction cache. For the less common case wherein an i-cache line comprises additional branches, the device stores the corresponding branch prediction information in a dense cache. Each entry of the sparse cache stores a bit vector indicating whether or not a corresponding instruction cache line includes additional branch instructions. This indication may also be used to select an entry in the dense cache for storage. A second sparse cache stores entire evicted entries from the first sparse cache.