A low-complexity fetch architecture for high-performance superscalar processors

Abstract

Fetch engine performance is a key topic in superscalar processors, since it limits the instruction-level parallelism that can be exploited by the execution core. In the search of high performance, the fetch engine has evolved toward more efficient designs, but its complexity has also increased.In this paper, we present the stream fetch engine, a novel architecture based on the execution of long streams of sequential instructions, taking maximum advantage of code layout optimizations. We describe our design in detail, showing that it achieves high fetch performance, while requiring less complexity than other state-of-the-art fetch architectures.