Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
BRANCH CONFIDENCE THROTTLE

Abstract:

A processing system includes a processor with a branch predictor including one or more branch target buffer tables. The processor also includes a branch prediction pipeline including a throttle unit and an uncertainty accumulator. The processor assigns an uncertainty value for each of a plurality of branch predictions generated by the branch predictor and adds the uncertainty value for each of the plurality of branch predictions to an accumulated uncertainty counter associated with the uncertainty accumulator. The throttle unit of the branch prediction pipeline throttles operations of the branch prediction pipeline based on the accumulated uncertainty counter.