US 11,748,105 B2
Methods and apparatus for storing a copy of a current fetched instruction when a miss threshold is exceeded until a refill threshold is reached
Michael Brian Schinzler, Round Rock, TX (US); Muhammad Umar Farooq, Austin, TX (US); and Yasuo Ishii, Austin, TX (US)
Assigned to Arm Limited, Cambridge (GB)
Filed by Arm Limited, Cambridgeshire (GB)
Filed on Apr. 27, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/241,365.
Prior Publication US 2022/0342671 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 9/38 (2018.01); G06F 9/30 (2018.01); G06F 9/32 (2018.01)
CPC G06F 9/3802 (2013.01) [G06F 9/30043 (2013.01); G06F 9/321 (2013.01); G06F 9/3861 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus comprising:
fetch circuitry to fetch instructions for execution by execution circuitry; and
instruction storage circuitry to store temporary copies of fetched instructions, wherein the fetch circuitry is configured to preferentially fetch instructions from the instruction storage circuitry, wherein the instruction storage circuitry is configured to:
responsive to a storage condition being met, begin storing copies of consecutive fetched instructions, the storage condition indicating a utility of a current fetched instruction;
responsive to determining that a number of said stored consecutive instructions has reached a storage threshold, cease storing copies of subsequent fetched instructions;
responsive to a number of consecutive fetched instructions not being fetched from the instruction storage circuitry exceeding a miss threshold, store a copy of the current fetched instruction in the instruction storage circuitry;
responsive to the number of consecutive instructions not being fetched from the instruction storage circuitry reaching the miss threshold, continue storing copies of current fetched instructions until a number of consecutive stored fetched instructions reaches a refill threshold; and
responsive to the number of consecutive stored fetched instructions reaching the refill threshold, cease storing copies of current fetched instructions.