Piecewise Linear Branch Prediction

Improved branch prediction accuracy is essential to sustaining instruction throughput with today’s deep pipelines. We introduce piecewise linear branch prediction, an idealized branch predictor that develops a set of linear functions, one for each program path to the branch to be predicted, that separate predicted taken from predicted not taken branches. Taken together, all of these linear functions form a piecewise linear decision surface. We present a limit study of this predictor showing its potential to greatly improve predictor accuracy. We then introduce a practical implementable branch predictor based on piecewise linear branch prediction. In making our predictor practical, we show how a parameterized version of it unifies the previously distinct concepts of perceptron prediction and path-based neural prediction. Our new branch predictor has implementation costs comparable to current prominent predictors in the literature while significantly improving accuracy. For a deeply...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ISCA
• Authors: Daniel A. Jiménez
• Keywords: Branch Prediction, Branch Predictor, Hardware, ISCA 2005, Linear Branch Prediction