Enhancing Microarchitecture Performance through Synergistic Dynamic Branch Prediction and Cache Prefetching

Abstract

In the dynamic landscape of modern microarchitecture design, performance optimization remains a perpetual pursuit. As deeply pipelined microarchitectures navigate the challenges posed by conditional branches, and memory access latency continues to cast its shadow, a holistic approach that harnesses the synergistic potential of dynamic branch prediction and cache prefetching emerges as a promising avenue. This paper delves into the intricacies of these two techniques, their individual significance, and their transformative impact when combined and accordingly proposed two novel techniches: HiPred and Confidence based Stream Prefetcher. The HiPred dynamic branch predictor introduces a hierarchical scheme that transcends accuracy thresholds, while the Confidence based Stream Prefetcher (CSP) strategically anticipates memory needs. The HiPred dynamic branch predictor innovatively employs a hierarchical structure that harnesses the predictive strengths of two distinct predictors whereas CSP meticulously localizes miss/access address streams and proactively orchestrates the caching of frequently accessed data. Experimental evaluation of these two techniques depicts that HiPred yields a remarkable accuracy rate exceeding 98% where as CSP orchestrates a performance uplift ranging from 10% to 20% across seven distinct SPEC benchmarks.