Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Lawrence K. Merkel
  • Patent number: 6721876
    Abstract: An indirect branch predictor includes a buffer storing branch target addresses corresponding to previously executed indirect branch instructions. The buffer is indexed with an index derived from history information corresponding to previously predicted indirect branch instructions and from the PC of the particular indirect branch instruction being predicted. In one embodiment, the buffer may be tagless and/or direct mapped. In various embodiments, the indirect branch target predictor may generate the index to the buffer using one or more techniques to improve the accuracy of the prediction: (i) offsetting the history information from the various previously predicted indirect branch instructions; (ii) weighting the history information based on the age of the previously predicted indirect branch instructions; and/or (iii) reversing the bit order of the PC of the particular indirect branch instruction being predicted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: I-Cheng K. Chen, Francis M. Matus