Patent ID: 7653807

Claim:
A method for removing a bubble from a pipeline, the method comprising: detecting a stall in a pipeline, which comprises a first register, a pipeline stage, and a second register, wherein an output of the second register is coupled to an input of the pipeline stage, and an output of the pipeline stage is coupled to an input of the first register, and wherein the first register and the second register advance data whenever a clock signal is provided to them; determining whether the first register contains invalid data; determining whether the second register contains valid data; and during the stall, if the first register contains invalid data and the second register contains valid data, blocking the clock signal to the first register, which causes the invalid data in the first register to be replaced by valid data that is based in part on the valid data in the second register, wherein blocking the clock signal to the first register causes the first register to consume less power, thereby reducing the power consumption of the pipeline.