unreported jump cache and method for the treatment of jumps

摘要

The present invention achieves a fast handling of the predicted jumps by introducing an additional buffer (20) for not reported predicted jump instructions in a reorder buffer. This additional buffer (20) is separate from the main buffer (10) and in supplied only with information associated with instructions related to predicted jumps. A predicted jump instruction is preferably stored both in the main buffer (10) and the additional buffer (20). The additional buffer operates in parallel with the main buffer (10) and in designed as a linear first-in-first-out queue. The first not reported jump is then always easily available at the top of the queue for evaluating the jump conditions. If a mispredicted jump is determined, the reorder buffer is flushed by a flush generator unit (42).