Multiple-Block Ahead Branch Predictors

A basic rule in computer architecture is that a processor cannot execute an application faster than it fetches its instructions. To overcome the instruction fetch bottleneck shown in wide-dispatch «brainiac» processors, this paper presents a novel cost-effective mechanism called the multiple-block ahead branch predictor that predicts in an efficient way addresses of multiple basic blocks in a single cycle. Moreover and unlike the previous multiple predictor schemes, the multiple-block ahead branch predictor can use any of the branch prediction schemes to perform very accurate predictions required to achieve high-performance on superscalar processors. Finally, we show that pipelining the branch prediction process can be done by means of our predictor for «speed demon» processors to achieve higher clock rate