Patent ID: 7243219

Claim:
A branch prediction architecture comprising: a prediction selector; a bimodal predictor coupled to the prediction selector, the bimodal predictor to generate a bimodal prediction for a branch instruction; a plurality of global predictors coupled to the prediction selector, each global predictor to generate a corresponding global prediction for the branch instruction, the prediction selector to select a branch prediction from the bimodal prediction and the global predictions, wherein each global prediction is to be generated based on a different amount of global branch history information; a first global predictor to generate a first global prediction by indexing into a first global array based on a first index, the first index to be associated with a first amount of global branch history information; and a second global predictor to generate a second global prediction by indexing into a second global array based on a second index, the second index to be associated with a second amount of global branch history information and folding the second index to obtain a smaller index for use in indexing into the second global array, the first amount to be less than the second amount.