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CMPE 421 Advanced Computer Architecture

CMPE 421 Advanced Computer Architecture. Control Hazard and Prediction PART4. Control Hazards. When the flow of instruction addresses is not sequential (i.e., PC = PC + 4); incurred by change of flow instructions Conditional branches ( beq , bne ) Unconditional branches ( j, jal, jr )

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CMPE 421 Advanced Computer Architecture

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  1. CMPE 421 Advanced Computer Architecture Control Hazard and Prediction PART4

  2. Control Hazards • When the flow of instruction addresses is not sequential (i.e., PC = PC + 4); incurred by change of flow instructions • Conditional branches (beq, bne) • Unconditional branches (j, jal, jr) • Exceptions • Possible approaches • Stall (impacts CPI) • Move decision point as early in the pipeline as possible, thereby reducing the number of stall cycles • Delay decision (requires compiler support) • Predict and hope for the best ! • Control hazards occur less frequently than data hazards, but there is nothing as effective against control hazards as forwarding is for data hazards

  3. IF IF IF IF ID ID ID ID EX EX EX EX MEM MEM MEM MEM WB WB WB WB Data Hazards for Branches • If a comparison register is a destination of 2nd or 3rd preceding ALU instruction add $1, $2, $3 add $4, $5, $6 … beq $1, $4, target • Can resolve using forwarding

  4. IF IF ID ID EX EX MEM MEM WB WB Data Hazards for Branches • If a comparison register is a destination of preceding ALU instruction or 2nd preceding load instruction • Need 1 stall cycle lw $1, addr add $4, $5, $6 IF ID beq stalled ID EX MEM WB beq $1, $4, target

  5. IF ID EX MEM WB Data Hazards for Branches • If a comparison register is a destination of immediately preceding load instruction • Need 2 stall cycles lw $1, addr IF ID beq stalled ID beq stalled ID EX MEM WB beq $1, $0, target

  6. DM DM DM Reg Reg Reg Reg Reg Reg IM IM IM ALU ALU ALU flush Jumps Incur One Stall • Jumps not decoded until ID, so one flush is needed • Fortunately, jumps are very infrequent – only ~3% of the instruction mix Fix jump hazard by waiting – stall – but affects CPI j I n s t r. O r d e r j target

  7. Jump PCSrc ID/EX Shift left 2 EX/MEM IF/ID Control Add MEM/WB PC+4[31-28] Branch Add 4 Shift left 2 Read Addr 1 Instruction Memory Data Memory Register File Read Data 1 Read Addr 2 0 Read Address PC Read Data Address Write Addr ALU Read Data 2 Write Data Write Data ALU cntrl 16 32 Sign Extend Forward Unit Supporting ID Stage Jumps

  8. Jump PCSrc Shift left 2 PC+4[31-28] Branch Add Shift left 2 Datapath Branch and Jump Hardware ID/EX EX/MEM IF/ID Control Add MEM/WB 4 Read Addr 1 Instruction Memory Data Memory Register File Read Data 1 Read Addr 2 Read Address PC Read Data Address Write Addr ALU Read Data 2 Write Data Write Data ALU cntrl 16 32 Sign Extend Forward Unit

  9. Branch Hazard • The delay is determining the next instruction to fetch is called “Control” or “Branch” hazard • Arising from the need to make decision based on the results of one instruction while other are executing • Pipeline can not know what the next instruction should be (in only receives branch instruction from memory) • Whether do branch or not is not know (taken) until MEM stage • These type of hazards occur less frequently • 15-20 % of all instructions are branches

  10. Solution 1: Always stall • Assume extra H/W is added to test registers calculate the branch target address and update the PC during the second stage (see fig 6.7 and page 13) • The lw instr. is executed if the branch fails (fig 6.8 A) is stalled 200ps clock cycle before starting. • Disadvantage: For longer pipelines will slowdown the total exec. time.

  11. Branch Hazard - Stall on Branch FIGURE 6.7 Pipeline showing stalling on every conditional branch as solution to control hazards. This example assumes the conditional branch is taken, and the instruction at the destination of the branch is the OR instruction. There is a one-stage pipeline stall, or bubble, after the branch. In reality, the process of creating a stall is slightly more complicated, as we will see in Section 6.6. The effect on performance, however, is the same as would occur if a bubble were inserted. Page 380

  12. Solution 2: (Prediction) need to add H/W for flushing instructions if are wrong • Assume branch is not taken (Fig 6.8) • If so, pipeline proceeds at full speed • Fetch the next instruction in program order • When the branch is resolved: • If the branch is not taken, keep going, no problem • If the branch is taken, we need to flush 3 instructions in the pipeline • We use nops to discard instructions in the IF, ID, EX stage. • In the case of branches, we need to flush the instructions from the pipeline, so that they don't have any effect

  13. Branch Hazard - Prediction FIGURE 6.8 Predicting that branches are not taken as a solution to control hazard. (A)The top drawing shows the pipeline when the branch is not taken. (B) The bottom drawing shows the pipeline when the branch is taken. As we noted in Figure 6.7, the insertion of a bubble in this fashion simplifies what actually happens, at least during the first clock cycle immediately following the branch. Section 6.6 will reveal the details.

  14. Case of Dependence • We do not know which instructions actually follows the branch, until MEM stage of branch instruction • The pipeline, however will have already fetched 3 instructions (and or add) from the not taken path. (See Figure 6.37) • Stalls reduce performance • But are required to get correct results • Compiler can arrange code to avoid hazards and stalls • Requires knowledge of the pipeline structure

  15. The trouble with branches Flush theseinstructions (Set controlvalues to 0) PC FIGURE 6.37 The impact of the pipeline on the branch instruction. The numbers to the left of the instruction (40, 44, . . . ) are the addresses of the instructions. Since the branch instruction decides whether to branch in the MEM stage—clock cycle 4 for the beq instruction above—the three sequential instructions that follow the branch will be fetched and begin execution. Without intervention, those three following instructions will begin execution before beq branches to lw at location 72. (Figure 6.7 assumed extra hardware to reduce the control hazard to one clock cycle; this figure uses the nonoptimized datapath.)

  16. DM DM Reg Reg Reg Reg IM IM ALU ALU flush flush flush beq target The trouble with branches beq Fix branch hazard by waiting – stall – but affects CPI I n s t r. O r d e r

  17. Reducing Branch Delay • Move hardware to determine outcome to ID stage • Target address adder • Register comparator • Example: branch taken 36: sub $10, $4, $840: beq $1, $3, 744: and $12, $2, $548: or $13, $2, $652: add $14, $4, $256: slt $15, $6, $7 ...72: lw $4, 50($7)

  18. Example: Branch Taken

  19. Example: Branch Taken

  20. Solutions for branch hazards • Say, we move branch logic earlier in the pipeline: • ID stage is the earliest time possible • Need circuitry to calculate branch target address • Easy, since we have PC and offset from the IF stage • Need circuitry to evaluate branch condition: • Harder! • Branch condition may be dependent on earlier instructions! • Moving the condition checking earlier introduces more data hazards between the branch and earlier instructions on which the branch depends! (see page 3, 4 and 5)

  21. Solutions for branch hazards • Say, we move branch logic earlier in the pipeline: • Need to take care of data hazards before the branch • Forwarding from the EX/MEM and the MEM/WB stage if the branch depends on prior instruction (page 4) • Data hazard can still occur, if the immediately preceding instruction generates a register which is used for the comparison in the branch. • At decode stage we need to decide whether we should bypass the ALU and use the dedicated branch condition logic (see page 21)

  22. Moving Branch Decisions Earlier in Pipe • Move the branch decision hardware back to the EX stage • Reduces the number of stall (flush) cycles to two • Adds an and gate and a 2x1 mux to the EX timing path • Add hardware to compute the branch target address and evaluate the branch decision to the ID stage • Reduces the number of stall (flush) cycles to one (like with jumps) • But now need to add forwarding hardware in ID stage • Computing branch target address can be done in parallel with RegFile read (done for all instructions – only used when needed) • Comparing the registers can’t be done until after RegFile read, so comparing and updating the PC adds a mux, a comparator, and an and gate to the ID timing path • For deeper pipelines, branch decision points can be even later in the pipeline, be needing more stalls

  23. ID Branch Forwarding Issues WB add3 $1, MEM add2 $3, EX add1 $4, ID beq $1,$2,Loop IF next_seq_instr • MEM/WB “forwarding” is taken care of by the normal RegFile write before read operation (during same clock cycle) • Need to forward from the EX/MEM pipeline stage to the ID comparison hardware for cases like WB add3 $3, MEM add2 $1, EX add1 $4, ID beq $1,$2,Loop IF next_seq_instr if (IDcontrol.Branch and (EX/MEM.RegisterRd != 0) and (EX/MEM.RegisterRd = IF/ID.RegisterRs)) ForwardC = 1 if (IDcontrol.Branch and (EX/MEM.RegisterRd != 0) and (EX/MEM.RegisterRd = IF/ID.RegisterRt)) ForwardD = 1 Forwards the result from the second previous instr. to either input of the compare

  24. 0 1 0 IF.Flush 0 Supporting ID Stage Branches Branch PCSrc Hazard Unit ID/EX EX/MEM Control IF/ID Add MEM/WB 4 Shift left 2 Add Compare Read Addr 1 Instruction Memory Data Memory RegFile Read Addr 2 Read Address Read Data 1 PC Read Data Write Addr ALU Address ReadData 2 Write Data Write Data ALU cntrl 16 Sign Extend 32 Forward Unit Forward Unit

  25. Summary: Static Branch Prediction • Resolve branch hazards by assuming a given outcome and proceeding without waiting to see the actual branch outcome • Predict not taken – always predict branches will not be taken, continue to fetch from the sequential instruction stream, only when branch is taken does the pipeline stall • If taken, flush instructions after the branch (earlier in the pipeline) • in IF, ID, and EX stages if branch logic in MEM – three stalls • In IF and ID stages if branch logic in EX – two stalls • in IF stage if branch logic in ID – one stall • ensure that those flushed instructions haven’t changed the machine state – automatic in the MIPS pipeline since machine state changing operations are at the tail end of the pipeline (MemWrite (in MEM) or RegWrite (in WB)) • restart the pipeline at the branch destination

  26. I n s t r. O r d e r DM DM DM DM Reg Reg Reg Reg Reg Reg Reg Reg flush IM IM IM IM ALU ALU ALU ALU 16 and $6,$1,$7 20 or r8,$1,$9 Flushing 4 beq $1,$2,2 • To flush the IF stage instruction, assert IF.Flush to zero the instruction field of the IF/ID pipeline register (transforming it into a noop) 8 sub $4,$1,$5

  27. Dynamic Branch Prediction(Topic for Term Project) • In deeper and superscalar pipelines, branch penalty is more significant • Use dynamic prediction • Branch prediction buffer (aka branch history table) • Indexed by recent branch instruction addresses • Stores outcome (taken/not taken) • To execute a branch • Check table, expect the same outcome • Start fetching from fall-through or target • If wrong, flush pipeline and flip prediction

  28. Dynamic Branch Prediction • A branch prediction buffer (aka branch history table (BHT)) in the IF stage addressed by the lower bits of the PC, contains a bit passed to the ID stage through the IF/ID pipeline register that tells whether the branch was taken the last time it was execute • Prediction bit may predict incorrectly (may be a wrong prediction for this branch this iteration or may be from a different branch with the same low order PC bits) but the doesn’t affect correctness, just performance • Branch decision occurs in the ID stage after determining that the fetched instruction is a branch and checking the prediction bit • If the prediction is wrong, flush the incorrect instruction(s) in pipeline, restart the pipeline with the right instruction, and invert the prediction bit • A 4096 bit BHT varies from 1% misprediction (nasa7, tomcatv) to 18% (eqntott)

  29. BTB Instruction Memory 0 Read Address PC Branch Target Buffer • The BHT predicts when a branch is taken, but does not tell where its taken to! • A branch target buffer (BTB) in the IF stage can cache the branch target address, but we also need to fetch the next sequential instruction. The prediction bit in IF/ID selects which “next” instruction will be loaded into IF/ID at the next clock edge • Would need a two read port instruction memory • Or the BTB can cache the branch takeninstructionwhile the instruction memory is fetching the next sequential instruction • If the prediction is correct, stalls can be avoided no matter which direction they go

  30. 1-bit Prediction Accuracy • Assume predict_bit = 0 to start (indicating branch not taken) and loop control is at the bottom of the loop code • First time through the loop, the predictor mispredicts the branch since the branch is taken back to the top of the loop; invert prediction bit (predict_bit = 1) • As long as branch is taken (looping), prediction is correct • Exiting the loop, the predictor again mispredicts the branch since this time the branch is not taken falling out of the loop; invert prediction bit (predict_bit = 0) • A 1-bit predictor will be incorrect twice when not taken Loop: 1st loop instr 2nd loop instr . . . last loop instr bne $1,$2,Loop fall out instr • For 10 times through the loop we have a 80% prediction accuracy for a branch that is taken 90% of the time

  31. 1-Bit Predictor: Shortcoming • Inner loop branches mispredicted twice! outer: … …inner: … … beq …, …, inner … beq …, …, outer • Mispredict as taken on last iteration of inner loop • Then mispredict as not taken on first iteration of inner loop next time around

  32. 2-bit Predictors • A 2-bit scheme can give 90% accuracy since a prediction must be wrong twice before the prediction bit is changed right 9 times Loop: 1st loop instr 2nd loop instr . . . last loop instr bne $1,$2,Loop fall out instr wrong on loop fall out Taken Not taken 1 Predict Taken Predict Taken 1 11 10 Taken right on 1st iteration Not taken Taken Not taken 0 Predict Not Taken 00 Predict Not Taken 0 • BHT also stores the initial FSM state 01 Taken Not taken

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