System and method for performing hardware prefetch tablewalks having lowest tablewalk priority

A microprocessor, comprising:

• a translation lookaside buffer that is configured to store a plurality of translated addresses for a corresponding plurality of virtual addresses, wherein said translation lookaside buffer is configured to receive a request for a translated address and to respond by providing a requested translated address when stored, and when not stored, by submitting a corresponding new tablewalk request including a received virtual address and a received priority value;
• at least one software module that is configured to submit said request for a translated address as a software-based request including a software virtual address and a corresponding software priority value for translating said software virtual address into a translated address;
• a hardware prefetch engine that is configured to monitor activity of the microprocessor and to submit said request for a translated address as a hardware-based request including a hardware virtual address and a corresponding hardware priority value having a lowest priority for translating said hardware virtual address into a translated address;
• and
• a tablewalk engine that is configured to receive said tablewalk request, to initiate a new tablewalk operation in response to said tablewalk request when idle to translate said received virtual address into a corresponding translated address, and to terminate a current tablewalk operation and to initiate said new tablewalk operation when a priority value of said new tablewalk request is higher than a priority value of said current tablewalk request.

A method capable of performing a hardware prefetch tablewalk for a microprocessor, comprising:

• receiving a new tablewalk request including a new priority value to perform a new tablewalk operation, wherein the new priority value comprises a lowest priority value when the request comprises a hardware prefetch tablewalk request;
• performing the tablewalk operation when a tablewalk operation is not currently being performed, said performing comprising translating a virtual address into a translated address;
• when a tablewalk operation is currently being performed, comparing the new priority value with a current priority value;
• rejecting the new tablewalk request when the new priority value has lower priority than the current priority value;
• and
• terminating the current tablewalk operation and initiating the new tablewalk operation when the new priority value has higher priority than the current priority value unless currently updating a translation lookaside buffer.