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:
Apr. 19, 2016
Filed:
Mar. 11, 2013
Qualcomm Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US);
James Norris Dieffenderfer, Apex, NC (US);
Michael William Morrow, Wilkes-Barre, PA (US);
Michael Scott McIlvaine, Raleigh, NC (US);
Daren Eugene Streett, Cary, NC (US);
Vimal K. Reddy, Raleigh, NC (US);
Brian Michael Stempel, Raleigh, NC (US);
QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
Establishing a branch target instruction cache (BTIC) entry for subroutine returns to reduce pipeline bubbles, and related systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of establishing a BTIC entry includes detecting a subroutine call in an execution pipeline. In response, at least one instruction fetched sequential to the subroutine call is written as a branch target instruction in a BTIC entry for a subroutine return. A next instruction fetch address is calculated, and is written into a next instruction fetch address field in the BTIC entry. In this manner, the BTIC may provide correct branch target instruction and next instruction fetch address data for the subroutine return, even if the subroutine return is encountered for the first time or the subroutine is called from different calling locations.