OUT-OF-ORDER EXECUTION MICROPROCESSOR THAT SPECULATIVELY EXECUTES DEPENDENT MEMORY ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS BY PREDICTING NO VALUE CHANGE BY OLDER INSTRUCTIONS THAT LOAD A SEGMENT REGISTER

摘要

An out-of-order execution microprocessor executes an architectural segment register-loading instruction that instructs the microprocessor to load a new value into an architectural segment register of the microprocessor. A comparator compares the new value specified by the architectural segment register-loading instruction with a current contents of the architectural segment register. A control unit causes to be re-executed using the new value all instructions in the microprocessor that used the current architectural segment register contents as a source operand and that are newer in program order than the architectural segment register-loading instruction whenever the comparator indicates the new value does not equal the current contents. An instruction scheduler retrieves the current contents and issues for execution instructions that use the retrieved current contents, even though the instructions are newer in program order than the register-loading instruction and the register-loading instruction has not yet written the new value to the architectural segment register.