Branch-addresses prediction method e.g. for microprocessors, requires directly polling an instruction for hits found in appropriate address source device

摘要

A method of predicting branch-addresses for a given branch instruction involves operating an additional (second) address source device (conversion buffer) (32) for storing a number of actually used branch-addresses. An instruction is directly polled for hits found in the second address source device (32), and the address made ready by this source (32) is then compared (30) with the address resulting from the hit in this source (32). Direct polling of the relevant instruction is carried out when these addresses are identical, and the instruction polling is repeated using the instruction address outputted by the first address source (branch target buffer) (16) when the addresses are not identical An Independent claim is given for a computer processing unit