Question
Interference in this action can be reduced with strategies like “YAGS”, “Bi-mode”, and “gskew”. The Alpha 21264 uses a “tournament” technique for this action that dynamically picks a local or global strategy. A simple strategy for this action that uses no state is abbreviated “BTFNT”, where B stands for “backwards” and F is “forwards”. The top-voted answer of all time on StackOverflow explains this technique in response to the question “Why is processing a sorted array faster than processing an unsorted array?”. A textbook technique for this action uses two-bit saturating counters to keep track of (*) history in a pattern history table. Failure in this action may lead to wasted speculative execution, which is the basis of the Spectre vulnerability. For 10 points, what technique improves how a processor’s instruction pipeline handles conditional jumps by guessing whether they’ll be taken? ■END■
ANSWER: branch prediction [accept word forms; reject partial answers; reject “branch target prediction”; prompt on “speculative execution” before “speculative execution” with “what action results in speculative execution?”]
<BC>
= Average correct buzz position
| Conv. % | Power % | Average Buzz |
|---|
| 100% | 80% | 84.60 |
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