A dependence driven efficient dispatch scheme

The rename map table (RMT) access and the dependence check logic (DCL) delays scale unfavorably "with the dispatch width (DW) of a superscalar processor. It is a well-known program property that the results of most instructions are consumed within the following 4-6 instruction window. This program behavior can be exploited to reduce the rename delay by reducing the number of read/write ports in the RMT to significantly below the current 3 * DW. We propose an algorithm to dynamically allocate reduced number of RMT ports to instructions in the current dispatch window, matching dispatch resources to average needs rather than peak needs. This results in shorter RMT access delays as well as in lower energy in the dispatch stage. The IPC reduction due to rename map table read/write port contention in the proposed scheme stays within 2-4%. The cycle time saved can also be leveraged to support wider dispatch in the same cycle time in order to offset this degradation.