Intel Corporation
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR NON-SPECULATIVE RESOURCE DEALLOCATION

Abstract:

An apparatus and method for non-speculative resource deallocation. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: front-end circuitry comprising branch prediction circuitry to indicate a speculative instruction path and a fetch unit to fetch instructions from a memory or instruction cache in accordance with the speculative instruction path; an in-order queue coupled to the front end circuitry, the in-order queue to store instructions of the speculative instruction path provided from the front end circuitry; an out-of-order cluster comprising first instruction processing resources including allocation circuitry to allocate execution resources to be used to execute the instructions of the speculative instruction path and an instruction dispatcher to perform out-of-order dispatching of the instructions for execution; back-end circuitry comprising a plurality of functional units to execute the instructions of the speculative instruction path, the plurality of functional units to perform out-of-order execution of the instructions; and in-order resource deallocation circuitry to deallocate the first instruction processing resources in program order.