Patent ID: 7472263

Claim:
A branch prediction apparatus comprising: a branch information receiving unit that receives simultaneously, a plurality of branch information for each of a plurality of branch instructions that are completed simultaneously; and a parallel branch predicting unit that performs branch prediction in parallel for the branch instructions completed simultaneously, based on the branch information received and a branch history information of the respective branch instructions, to thereby obtain branch direction prediction results, wherein the apparatus further performs branch prediction by letting the branch direction prediction results act on a branch prediction mechanism having target addresses, wherein the parallel branch predicting unit includes a branch direction predicting unit that predicts whether a branch direction is taken or not taken based on the branch information of the branch instruction and the branch history information of the branch instruction, wherein the branch direction predicting unit has branch instruction addresses without target addresses, the parallel branch predicting unit further includes a plurality of branch predicting sub-units that perform branch prediction in parallel, and each of the branch predicting sub-units includes an identifier storing unit that stores an identifier per branch instruction to identify the branch instruction.