Methods and apparatuses for instructions including a misprediction handling hint to reduce a branch misprediction penalty

A method comprising:

• predicting, by a branch predictor circuit, a predicted path for a branch;
• causing, by the branch predictor circuit, a speculative processing of the predicted path;
• decoding, by a decoder circuit, a single instruction into a decoded instruction, the single instruction having a field to indicate whether a retirement circuit is to allow retirement of the predicted path for the branch that is a misprediction;
• and
• executing, by an execution circuit, the decoded instruction to cause:
• the retirement circuit to allow the retirement of the predicted path that is the misprediction for the branch when the field is set to a first value, and
• the retirement circuit to disallow the retirement of the predicted path that is the misprediction for the branch when the field is otherwise.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium that stores code that when executed by a machine, wherein the machine comprises a retirement circuit and a branch predictor circuit to predict a predicted path for a branch and cause a speculative processing of the predicted path, causes the machine to perform a method comprising:

• decoding, by a decoder circuit, a single instruction into a decoded instruction, the single instruction having a field to indicate whether the retirement circuit is to allow retirement of the predicted path for the branch that is a misprediction;
• and
• executing, by an execution circuit, the decoded instruction to cause:
• the retirement circuit to allow the retirement of the predicted path that is the misprediction for the branch when the field is set to a first value, and
• the retirement circuit to disallow the retirement of the predicted path that is the misprediction for the branch when the field is otherwise.