Adaptive Fetch Advance Control for a Low Power Processor

A processor, comprising:

• a control flow module comprising:
• an instruction buffer queue (IBQ) with multiple lines;
• and
• a modifiable fetch advance parameter to specify a fetch advance setting for the IBQ;
• the control flow module operable to automatically determine whether a branch has been predicted for a program, in response to execution of the program in the processor, and to automatically modify the fetch advance parameter in response to determining that the branch has been predicted for the program.

An electronic device comprising:

• a processor, comprising:
• a control flow module comprising:
• an instruction buffer queue (IBQ) with multiple lines;
• and
• a modifiable fetch advance parameter to specify a fetch advance setting for the IBQ;
• and
• the control flow module operable to automatically determine whether a branch has been predicted for a program, in response to execution of the program in the processor, and to automatically modify the fetch advance parameter in response to determining that the branch has been predicted for the program;
• and
• at least one input/output (I/O) port responsive to the processor.