Determination of a linear relationship based on producer-consumer pairs

A method of data processing comprising:

• storing a producer-consumer relationship in relationship storage circuitry, the producer-consumer relationship defining an association between a producer instruction and at least one consumer instruction, wherein a consumer value of the at least one consumer instruction is generated in dependence on producer data resulting from the producer instruction;
• selecting, using relationship determination circuitry, a first producer-consumer pair and a second producer-consumer pair from a plurality of observed instructions;
• and
• determining, using the relationship determination circuitry, a linear relationship between consumer values and producer data values based on:
• respective consumer values of the first producer-consumer pair and the second producer-consumer pair, and
• respective producer data values of the first producer-consumer pair and the second producer-consumer pair;
• determining a predicted consumer value for a given consumer instruction based on the linear relationship;
• and
• initiating a speculative action for the given consumer instruction based on the predicted consumer value.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium to store computer-readable code for fabrication of an apparatus comprising:

• relationship storage circuitry to store a producer-consumer relationship, the producer-consumer relationship defining an association between a producer instruction and at least one consumer instruction, wherein a consumer value of the at least one consumer instruction is generated in dependence on producer data resulting from the producer instruction;
• and
• relationship determination circuitry to select a first producer-consumer pair and a second producer-consumer pair from a plurality of observed instructions, and to determine a linear relationship between consumer value and producer data values based on:
• respective consumer values of the first producer-consumer pair and the second producer-consumer pair, and
• respective producer data values of the first producer-consumer pair and the second producer-consumer pair;
• and
• prediction circuitry configured to determine a predicted consumer value based on the linear relationship and to initiate a speculative action based on the predicted consumer value.