jump trace buffer
(JTB) A feature of some pipelined processors (e.g. Amulet, Pentium?) which
stores the source and destination addresses of the last few branch instuctions
executed. When a branch instruction is fetched, its source is looked for in the
JTB. If found, the next instuction fetch will be from the previous destination
of that branch. If it turns out that the branch shouldn't have been taken this
time, then the pipeline is flushed. This means that in a tight loop it is not
necessary to flush the pipeline every time you jump back to the start.
(1994-12-15)
Nearby terms:
jump « jumper « jump off into never-never land «
jump trace buffer » Junction FET » Junction
Field Effect Transistor » Juno
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