+BranchPredictionTechniques - G22.2243-001 High Performance...

G22.2243-001
High Performance Computer Architecture
Lecture 4
Branch Prediction
Scoreboarding
September 28, 2004

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Outline
• Announcements
– Assignment 1 due back October 5th
• Reducing the impact of control hazards
– Branch prediction buffers
– Branch target buffers
– Return address stacks
• Reducing the impact of data hazards
– Scoreboarding
[ Hennessy/Patterson CA:AQA (3rd Edition): Appendix A, Chapter 3]

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(Review) Reducing Branch Stalls
• Baseline: Stall pipeline on a branch instruction
– 3 cycle stall on 5-stage RISC pipeline (2 if not taken)
• Faster stall pipeline
– Move branch direction/target determination to ID stage
– 1 cycle stall
• Predict branch not taken , squash instructions as necessary
– 0 cycle stall on not-taken branches, 1 cycle stall for taken
• Predict branch taken , squash instructions as necessary
– Need target address, so 1-cycle stall
– Can reduce to 0 with additional hardware: B ranch T arget B uffer
• Branch delay slots
– Instruction after branch always executes
– 0 cycle stall if useful instruction can be found (from above/below branch)
– Else, 1-cycle stall (effectively)

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Evaluating Branch Alternatives
• Assumptions
– 14% of instructions are branches
– 30% of branches are not taken
– 50% of delay slots can be filled with useful instructions
Scheduling Branch CPI speedup v. speedup v.
scheme penalty unpipelined stall
Slow stall pipeline 3 1.42 3.5 1.0
Fast stall pipeline 1 1.14 4.4 1.26
Predict taken 1 1.14 4.4 1.26
Predict not taken 0.7 1.10 4.5 1.29
Delayed branch 0.5 1.07 4.7 1.34
• A compiler can reorder instructions to further improve speedup
Pipeline speedup =
Pipeline depth
1 +Branch frequency × Branch penalty

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Importance of Avoiding Branch Stalls
• Crucial in modern microprocessors, which issue/execute multiple
instructions every cycle
– Need to have a steady stream of instructions to keep the hardware busy
– Stalls due to control hazards dominate
• So far, we have looked at static schemes for reducing branch penalties
– Same scheme applies to every branch instruction
• Potential for increased benefits from dynamic schemes
– Can choose most appropriate scheme separately for each instruction
• Branches to top of loop have different behavior ( T aken) than
“if (x == 0) return;” ( N ot T aken)
– Can “learn” appropriate scheme based on observed behavior
– Dynamic (hardware) branch prediction schemes
• For both direction (T or NT) and target prediction
• Key element of all modern microprocessors

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Dynamic Branch Prediction (1):
Branch Prediction (History) Buffer
• Small memory indexed by the low-order bits of the branch instruction
– Stores a single bit of information: T or NT
• Starts off as T, flips whenever a branch behaves opposite to prediction
– For now, assume supported in the ID stage
• Benefits for larger pipelines, more complex branches
• Problems with this simple scheme
– Prediction value may not correspond to branch being considered
•