METHOD AND APPARATUS TO REDUCE MISPREDICTION PENALTY BY EXPLOITING EXACT CONVERGENCE

A method and apparatus for executing a selective recovery after a branch misprediction is disclosed. In one embodiment, the instructions following the mispredicted branch point may be saved for selective re-execution in a buffer. Those instructions that wrote to physical registers between the mispredicted branch point and an exact convergence point, thereby causing false data dependencies, may be followed by corresponding move instructions to eliminate the false data dependencies. The instructions subsequent to the exact convergence point may then be selectively re-executed if subject to the previous false data dependencies.