Return address stack
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsStephan J. Jourdan, John Alan Miller, Namratha Jaisimha
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for storing predicted return addresses of instructions being executed by a pipelined processor, the apparatus includes a two part return address buffer that includes a speculative return address buffer and a committed return address buffer, both of which having multiple entries that may include predicted return addresses that have been pushed onto the return buffer.
Claims27
An apparatus for storing predicted return addresses of instructions being executed by a pipelined processor, the apparatus comprising:
- a two part return address buffer, comprising
- a speculative return address buffer;
- and
- a committed return address buffer, both of which having multiple entries that may include predicted return addresses that have been pushed onto the return buffer.
An article comprising a machine-readable medium that stores machine-executable instructions for storing predicted return addresses of instructions being executed by a pipelined processor, the instructions causing a machine to:
- push a return address onto a two part return address buffer, wherein the two part buffer comprises a speculative return address buffer and a committed return address buffer, both of which having multiple entries;
- and
- pop the predicted return address from the two part buffer, wherein the popped return address may come from either the speculative return address buffer or the committed address buffer.
A method of storing predicted return addresses of instructions being executed by a pipelined processor, the method comprising:
- pushing a return address onto a two part return address buffer, wherein the two part buffer comprises a speculative return address buffer and a committed return address buffer, both of which having multiple entries;
- and
- popping the predicted return address from the two part buffer, wherein the popped return address may come from either the speculative return address buffer or the committed address buffer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.