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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (33468)	3/26/2001 8:16:38 AM
From: fyodor_	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Scumbria: Where did you get this information? Supposedly, the Athlon uses a simple two-bit Smith prediction algorithm. Originally in an article on Ace's Hardware citing multiple sources: aceshardware.com MPR report of October '98: "The K7 implements a surprisingly simple branch predictor for a machine with such a long pipeline. The K7 uses a 2,048-entry branch history table (BHT) with a simple two-bit Smith prediction algorithm. This predictor stands in sharp contrast to the K6's elaborate 8,192-entry BHT with its two-level GAs predictor, a feature that AMD now admits was overkill. " Analysis by Andreas Kaiser: s.netic.de Ace's Hardware:"One weakness of the K7 branch predictor is that the Athlon's predictor can not cope with more than two branches in a 16-byte aligned code window. If more are present, it trashes the BTB." -fyo