Software Support for Speculative Loads

Abstract:

This paper describes a very simple mechanism and related compiler support for
software--controlled speculative loads. The compiler issues
speculative load instructions based on anticipated data references and the
ability of the memory system to hide memory latency in high--performance
processors. The architectural support for such a mechanism is simple and
minimal, yet handles faults gracefully. We have simulated the speculative
load mechanism based on a MIPS processor and a detailed memory system. The
results of scientific kernel loops indicate that the speculative load
techniques are effective approaches to hiding memory latency.

This technical report has been published as

Software Support for Speculative Loads. Anne Rogers and Kai Li,
ACM Proc. of the 5th Internat. Conference on
Architectural Support for Programming Languages and
Operating Systems, pp. 38-50, 1992.