SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROPAGATING OPERAND AVAILABILITY PREDICTION BITS WITH INSTRUCTIONS THROUGH A PIPELINE IN AN OUT-OF-ORDER PROCESSOR

A processor core and a method for distributive scoreboard scheduling in an out-of-order processor pipeline are described herein. In an embodiment, control logic appends operand availability bits to each instruction. The appended operand availability bits form a distributive scoreboard for each instruction. The appended operand availability bits are propagated together with the instruction through multiple stages of the processor pipeline. An instruction dispatch buffer stores the instruction and the operand availability bits. A dispatch controller determines when an instruction is to be issued. The determination is based, at least in part, on the operand availability bits stored in the instruction dispatch buffer.