Patent ID: 7409534
Filing Date: 2008-08-05
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computing device to provide hardware conversion of control flow in machine code that is executable by said computing device, comprising: predicate assignment means configured to detect the beginning and the end of a branch domain of original machine code based solely on said original machine code, said original machine code being executable by said computing device and by a target computing device different from said computing device; and predicate use means configured to realize the beginning and the end of said branch domain at execution time, and to selectively enable and disable machine code within said branch domain during program execution, wherein said predicate assignment means is further configured to review a predicate address of a candidate branch in an instruction window of the computing device; to perform a look-up based on the predicate address to determine if the predicate address corresponds to an entry that indicates that a target address of the candidate branch is outside of the instruction window; and to read the target address of the candidate branch if the target address lies outside of the instruction window.