Dynamic Hammock Predication for Non-Predicated Instruction Set Architectures

Conventional speculative architectures use branch prediction to evaluate the most likely execution path during program execution. However, certain branches are difficult to predict. One solution to this problem is to evaluate both paths following such a conditional branch. Predicated execution can be used to implement this form of multi-path execution. Predicated architectures fetch and issue instructions that have associated predicates. These predicates indicate if the instruction should commit its result. Predicating a branch reduces the number of branches executed, eliminating the chance of branch misprediction at the cost of executing additional instructions. In this paper, we propose a restricted form of multi-path execution called Dynamic Predication for architectures with little or no support for predicated instructions in their instruction set. Dynamic predication dynamically predicates instruction sequences in the form of a branch hammock, concurrently executing both paths of...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: IEEEPACT
• Authors: Artur Klauser, Todd M. Austin, Dirk Grunwald, Brad Calder
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Dynamic Predication, IEEEPACT 1998, Instruction, Multi-path Execution