Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Branch prediction structure indexed based on return address popped from a call-return stack
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Application No.: US16100448Application Date: 2018-08-10
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Publication No.: US11301253B2Publication Date: 2022-04-12
- Inventor: Varun Palivela , Tom Marko Hameenanttila
- Applicant: Arm Limited
- Applicant Address: GB Cambridge
- Assignee: Arm Limited
- Current Assignee: Arm Limited
- Current Assignee Address: GB Cambridge
- Agency: Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
- Main IPC: G06F9/38
- IPC: G06F9/38 ; G06F9/30 ; G06F11/34 ; G06F9/32

Abstract:
An apparatus comprises a branch predictor to predict an outcome of a branch instruction to be processed by processing circuitry, based on branch prediction state information stored in one or more branch prediction structures, and a call path tracking element to store call path tracking information, where in response to a procedure calling instruction processed by the processing circuitry, the call path tracking information is updated depending on at least a portion of an address associated with the procedure calling instruction. The one or more branch prediction structures include at least one call-path-indexed branch prediction structure which is indexed based on an index value which depends on a portion of the call path tracking information stored in the call path tracking element.
Public/Granted literature
- US20200050459A1 CALL-PATH-INDEXED BRANCH PREDICTION STRUCTURE Public/Granted day:2020-02-13
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