US 11,983,533 B2
Control flow prediction using pointers
Joseph Michael Pusdesris, Austin, TX (US); Alexander Cole Shulyak, Austin, TX (US); Yasuo Ishii, Austin, TX (US); and Houdhaifa Bouzguarrou, Valbonne (FR)
Assigned to Arm Limited, Cambridge (GB)
Filed by Arm Limited, Cambridge (GB)
Filed on Jun. 28, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/851,266.
Prior Publication US 2023/0418609 A1, Dec. 28, 2023
Int. Cl. G06F 9/30 (2018.01); G06F 9/38 (2018.01)
CPC G06F 9/30058 (2013.01) [G06F 9/3861 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A data processing apparatus comprising:
history storage circuitry configured to store a plurality of sets of behaviours of helper instructions for a control flow instruction;
pointer storage circuitry configured to store a plurality of pointers, each associated with one of the sets, wherein the behaviours in the one of the sets are indexed according to one of the pointers associated with that one of the sets;
increment circuitry configured to increment at least some of the pointers in response to an increment event; and
prediction circuitry configured to determine a predicted behaviour of the control flow instruction using one of the sets of behaviours.