COMPACT LINKED-LIST-BASED MULTI-THREADED INSTRUCTION GRADUATION BUFFER

A processor and instruction graduation unit for a processor. In one embodiment, a processor or instruction graduation unit according to the present invention includes a linked-list-based multi-threaded graduation buffer and a graduation controller. The graduation buffer stores identification values generated by an instruction decode and dispatch unit of the processor as part of one or more linked-list data structures. Each linked-list data structure formed is associated with a particular program thread running on the processor. The number of linked-list data structures formed is variable and related to the number of program threads running on the processor. The graduation controller includes linked-list head identification registers and linked-list tail identification registers that facilitate reading and writing identifications values to linked-list data structures associated with particular program threads. The linked-list head identification registers determine which executed instruction result or results are next to be written to a register file.