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US 2006/0224867 A1Published application
Avoiding unnecessary processing of predicated instructions
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorThang Tran
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A processor comprising an instruction cache module adapted to store a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions comprising a group of instructions predicated on a conditional statement. The processor also comprises a branch prediction module coupled to the instruction cache module and adapted to predict an outcome of the conditional statement. Based on the prediction, the branch prediction module modifies an instruction preceding the group of instructions such that at least one instruction in the group of instructions is not executed.
Claims20
A processor, comprising:
- an instruction cache module adapted to store a plurality of instructions, said plurality of instructions comprising a group of instructions predicated on a conditional statement;
- and
- a branch prediction module coupled to the instruction cache module and adapted to predict an outcome of the conditional statement;
- wherein, based on said prediction, the branch prediction module modifies an instruction preceding the group of instructions such that at least one instruction in said group of instructions is not executed.
1 more element
A system, comprising:
- a transceiver;
- and
- a processor coupled to the transceiver and comprising:
- a cache module adapted to store a plurality of instructions, a group of the plurality of instructions predicated on at least one condition;
- and
- a prediction module coupled to the cache module, said prediction module adapted to predict the status of the at least one condition and, based on said prediction, to determine whether to skip over at least some of the group.
3 more elements
A method, comprising:
- predicting the outcome of a conditional statement contained within a predicated instruction;
- and
- based on said prediction, determining whether to skip over at least part of a group of predicated instructions all predicated on the conditional statement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.