Intermediate Register Mapper

A processor, comprising:

• instruction processing circuitry;
• a plurality of physical register files;
• a register management unit coupled to said instruction processing circuitry, said register management unit includes:
• a unified main mapper coupled, wherein said unified main mapper maintains logical-to-physical register renaming data;
• and
• an intermediate register mapper coupled to said unified main mapper, wherein said intermediate register mapper stores said logical-to-physical register renaming data, wherein said register management unit moves said logical-to-physical register renaming data from said unified main mapper to said intermediate register mapper in response to an instruction having a register mapper entry in said unified main mapper that has finished but has not been completed, and wherein said move from said unified main mapper occurs after the instruction has finished, but prior to completion of said instruction.

A computer program product, comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium;
• and
• program code stored within said computer readable storage medium that directly operates off a processor to perform the mapping steps of:
• in response to dispatch of at least one instruction, determining via a logical register lookup whether a hit to a logical register associated with said dispatched instruction has occurred within at least one register mapper from a group of register mappers including an architected register mapper, a unified main mapper, and an intermediate register mapper;
• and
• if an instruction having a unified main mapping entry in said unified main mapper has finished but has not completed:
• moving logical-to-physical register renaming data of said unified main mapping entry in said unified main mapper to said intermediate register mapper, and
• releasing said unified main mapping entry prior to completion of said instruction, wherein said releasing of said unified main mapping entry increases a number of unified main mapping entries available for reuse.