SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEFERRING EXCEPTIONS GENERATED DURING SPECULATIVE EXECUTION

The present invention is generally directed to a system and method for supporting speculative execution of an instruction set for a central processing unit (CPU) including non-speculative and speculative instructions. In accordance with one aspect of the invention a method includes the steps of evaluating the instructions of the program to determine whether the individual instructions are speculative or non-speculative, and assessing each of the speculative instructions to determine whether it generates an exception. For each of the speculative instructions that generates an exception, the method then encode a deferred exception token (DET) into an unused register value of a register of the CPU. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a system is provided, which system includes circuitry configured to evaluate the instructions of the instruction set to determine whether the individual instructions are speculative or non-speculative. The system further includes circuitry configured to assess each of the speculative instructions to determine whether it generates an exception. Finally, the system further includes circuitry configured to encode a deferred exception token (DET) into an unused register value of a register of the (CPU.