PREFETCH PREDICTION

Predicting prefetch data sources for runahead execution triggering read operations eliminates the latency penalties of missing read operations that typically are not addressed by runahead execution mechanisms. Read operations that most likely trigger runahead execution are identified. The code unit that includes those triggering read operations is modified so that the code unit branches to a prefetch predictor. The prefetch predictor observes sequence patterns of data sources of triggering read operations and develops prefetch predictions based on the observed data source sequence patterns. After a prefetch prediction gains reliability, the prefetch predictor supplies a predicted data source to a prefetcher coincident with triggering of runahead execution.