MICROPROCESSOR THAT FUSES IF-THEN INSTRUCTIONS

摘要

A microprocessor performs an If-Then (IT) instruction and an associated IT block by extracting condition information from the IT instruction and for each instruction of the IT block: determining a respective condition for the instruction using the extract condition information, translating the instruction into a microinstruction, and conditionally executing the microinstruction based on the respective condition. For a first instruction, the translating comprises fusing the IT instruction with the first IT block instruction. A hardware instruction translation unit performs the extracting, determining and translating. Execution units conditionally execute the microinstructions. The hardware instruction translation unit and execution units are distinct hardware elements and are coupled together. The hardware translation unit performs the extracting, fusing and for each instruction of the IT block the determining and translating without writing intermediate results to a system memory, without execution of other architectural instructions by the microprocessor, and/or in six clock cycles or less.