US 11,755,330 B2
Tracking exact convergence to guide the recovery process in response to a mispredicted branch
Vignyan Reddy Kothinti Naresh, Redmond, WA (US); and Shivam Priyadarshi, Apex, NC (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Sep. 13, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/943,341.
Application 17/943,341 is a continuation of application No. 17/323,069, filed on May 18, 2021, granted, now 11,494,191.
Prior Publication US 2023/0004397 A1, Jan. 5, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 9/38 (2018.01)
CPC G06F 9/3861 (2013.01) [G06F 9/3867 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
9. A method for operating a processor including a pipeline comprising a first plurality of stages corresponding to a frontend of the pipeline and a second plurality of stages corresponding to a backend of the pipeline, the method comprising:
tracking locations of any exact convergence points associated with at least a subset of branches corresponding to instructions being processed using the processor;
maintaining a state table comprising information associated with the at least the subset of branches corresponding to the instructions being processed using the processor; and
initiating a first recovery method for recovering from a misprediction associated with a branch from the at least the subset of branches if a location of an exact convergence point associated with the branch is determined to be in the frontend of the pipeline, or else initiating a second recovery method, different from the first recovery method, for recovering from the misprediction associated with the branch, wherein the location of the exact convergence point associated with the branch is determined based on an entry for the branch in the state table.