ANNOTATION LOGIC FOR DYNAMIC INSTRUCTION LOOKAHEAD DISTANCEDETERMINATION

A processor having an instruction cache for storing a plurality of instructions is provided. The processor further includes annotation logic configured to determine a lookahead distance associated with an instruction and annotate the at least one instruction cache with the lookahead distance. The lookahead distance may correspond to a number of instructions that separates an instruction that references a register from the most recent register definition. The lookahead distance may indicate the shortest distance to a later instruction that references a register that this instruction defines.