InOrder Instruction Schedules

Instruction Schedules & Pipeline Definitions Overview

Instruction scheduling is divided into a front-end schedule (IF and ID), which is uniform for all the instructions, and a back-end schedule, which varies across the different instructions.

Relevant source files:

• pipeline_traits.[hh,cc]
• cpu.[hh,cc]

Front-End Schedules

Front-end Schedule Example

• Front-end Schedule
  • The front-end schedule comprises of the IF and ID stages
    • IF
      • NPC is updated by the Fetch unit
      • Instruction fetch from the I-Cache is initiated
    • ID
      • Instruction fetch is completed by I-Cache
      • Instruction decode is performed by the Decode unit
      • Branch prediction is performed by the BPred unit
      • Target PC is updated by the Fetch unit

Back-end Schedule

Back-end Schedule Example

• Back-end Schedule
  • The back-end schedule comprises of the ID, EX, MEM, and WB stages
    • ID
      • For non-store instructions, the source registers, if any, are read by the RF Manager
      • For load instructions, address generation is performed by the AGEN unit and data read from the D-Cache is initiated
      • The rest of the instructions are executed in the execution units
        • Single cycle operations are sent to the integer EXU
        • Execution is initiated for the multicycle/pipelined operations
    • EX
      • Execution is finished for the multicycle/pipelined operations
      • For load instructions, data read from the D-Cache is completed
      • For store instructions, the following tasks are performed
        • The source registers are read by the RF manager
        • Address generation is performed by the AGen unit
        • Data write into the D-Cache is initiated
    • MEM
      • For store instructions, data write into the D-Cache is completed
    • WB
      • Destination registers are written into by the RF manager
      • The instruction is graduated by the Grad unit