Improved instruction fetching with a new block-based cache scheme

Instruction fetch speeds are improved by using cache schemes that are based on dynamic flow of program instructions. Variable-sized block cache (VSBC) is a new instruction scheme that stores basic code blocks and their boundaries as traces. Current trace- or block-based cache schemes usually have some instructions stored repeatedly; this redundancy is eliminated in VSBC. The studies done so far, in single- and multi-threaded environments, have shown improvements in trace miss rate. Other aspects of VSBC performance such as trace length and latency are being studied.