1. Dynamic Branch Prediction
Why does prediction work?
Underlying algorithm has regularities
Data that is being operated on has regularities
Instruction sequence has redundancies that are artifacts of way that humans/compilers think about problems
Is dynamic branch prediction better than static branch prediction?
Seems to be
There are a small number of important branches in programs which have dynamic behavior
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

2. Dynamic Branch Prediction
Performance = ƒ(accuracy, cost of misprediction)
Branch History Table: Lower bits of PC address index table of 1-bit values
Says whether or not branch taken last time
No address check
Problem: in a loop, 1-bit BHT will cause two mispredictions (avg is 9 iteratios before exit):
End of loop case, when it exits instead of looping as before
First time through loop on next time through code, when it predicts exit instead of looping
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

3. Dynamic Branch Prediction
Solution: 2-bit scheme where change prediction only if get misprediction twice
Red: stop, not taken
Green: go, taken
Adds hysteresis to decision making process T NT
Predict Taken
Predict Not
Taken
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

4. BHT Accuracy Mispredict because either: 4096 entry table:
Wrong guess for that branch
Got branch history of wrong branch when index the table
4096 entry table:
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP
Integer
Floating Point

5. Correlating Branch Predictor
It may possible to improve the accuracy if we look at the behavior of other branches.
if (aa == 2)
aa = 0;
if (bb == 0)
bb = 0;
if (aa != bb)
The behavior of b3 is correlated with the behavior of b1 and b2.

6. Correlating Predictors
Two-level predictors
if (d == 0)
d = 1;
if (d == 1)

7. initial value of d b1
value of d before b2 b2 nt 1 t 2

8. 1-bit Predictor (Initialized to NT)
b1 predic
b1 action
new b1 pr
b2 predic
b2 action
new b2 pr 2 nt t T

9. (1,1) Predictor
Every branch has two separate prediction bits.
First bit: the prediction if the last branch in the program is not taken.
Second bit: the prediction if the last branch in the program is taken.
Write the pair of prediction bits together.

10. Combinations & Meaning
Prediction bits
Prediction if not taken
Prediction if taken
NT/NT NT
NT/T T
T/NT
T/T

11. (1,1) Predictor Example d b1 pred b1 action new b1 pred b2 pred
nt/nt t
t/nt
nt/t nt
Let’s write all b1/b2 real actions and initial b1/b2 pred as nt/nt
Initial prediction bits are nt/nt
Initial last branch is nt
Used prediction bit is colored with red

12. Correlated Branch Prediction
Idea: record m most recently executed branches as taken or not taken, and use that pattern to select the proper n-bit branch history table
In general, (m,n) predictor means record last m branches to select between 2m history tables, each with n-bit counters
Thus, old 2-bit BHT is a (0,2) predictor
Global Branch History: m-bit shift register keeping T/NT status of last m branches.
Each entry in table has m n-bit predictors.
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP 12

13. Correlating Branches (2,2) predictor Branch address
– Behavior of recent branches selects between four predictions of next branch, updating just that prediction
Branch address 4
2-bits per branch predictor
Prediction
2-bit global branch history
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

14. Accuracy of Different Schemes
20%
4096 Entries 2-bit BHT
Unlimited Entries 2-bit BHT
1024 Entries (2,2) BHT
18%
16%
14%
12%
11%
Frequency of Mispredictions
10% 8% 6% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 4% 4% 2% 1% 1% 0% 0%
nasa7
matrix300
tomcatv
doducd
spice
fpppp
gcc
expresso
eqntott li
4,096 entries: 2-bits per entry
Unlimited entries: 2-bits/entry
1,024 entries (2,2)
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

15. Tournament Predictors
Multilevel branch predictor
Use n-bit saturating counter to choose between predictors
Usual choice between global and local predictors
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

16. Tournament Predictors
Tournament predictor using, say, 4K 2-bit counters indexed by local branch address. Chooses between:
Global predictor
4K entries index by history of last 12 branches (212 = 4K)
Each entry is a standard 2-bit predictor
Local predictor
Local history table: bit entries recording last 10 branches, index by branch address
The pattern of the last 10 occurrences of that particular branch used to index table of 1K entries with 3-bit saturating counters
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

17. Comparing Predictors
Advantage of tournament predictor is ability to select the right predictor for a particular branch
Particularly crucial for integer benchmarks
A typical tournament predictor will select the global predictor almost 40% of the time for the SPEC integer benchmarks and less than 15% of the time for the SPEC FP benchmarks
2-bit BHT
SPEC89
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

18. Pentium 4 Misprediction Rate (per 1000 instructions, not per branch)
6% misprediction rate per branch SPECint (19% of INT instructions are branch)
2% misprediction rate per branch SPECfp (5% of FP instructions are branch)
SPECint2000
SPECfp2000
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP

19. Branch Target Buffers (BTB)
Branch target calculation is costly and stalls the instruction fetch.
BTB stores PCs the same way as caches
The PC of a branch is sent to the BTB
When a match is found the corresponding Predicted PC is returned
If the branch was predicted taken, instruction fetch continues at the returned predicted PC

20. Branch Target Buffers Branch PC Predicted PC PC of instruction FETCH
Yes: inst is branch,
Next PC = predicted PC =?
Extra
Prediction
state
bits
No: proceed normally
(Next PC = PC+4)

21. Dynamic Branch Prediction Summary
Prediction becoming important part of execution
Branch History Table: 2 bits for loop accuracy
Correlation: Recently executed branches correlated with next branch
Either different branches (GA)
Or different executions of same branches (PA)
Tournament predictors take insight to next level, by using multiple predictors
usually one based on global information and one based on local information, and combining them with a selector
In 2006, tournament predictors using  30K bits are in processors like the Power5 and Pentium 4
Branch Target Buffer: include branch address & prediction
12/8/2018
Lec4 ILP