NOREBA: A compiler-informed non-speculative out-of-order commit processor

Abstract

Modern superscalar processors execute instructions out-of-order, but commit them in program order to provide precise exception handling and safe instruction retirement. However, in-order instruction commit is highly conservative and holds on to critical resources far longer than necessary, severely limiting the reach of general-purpose processors, ultimately reducing performance. Solutions that allow for efficient, early reclamation of these critical resources could seize the opportunity to improve performance. One such solution is out-of-order commit, which has traditionally been challenging due to inefficient, complex hardware used to guarantee safe instruction retirement and provide precise exception handling. In this work, we present NOREBA, a processor for Non-speculative Out-of-order Retirement via Branch Reconvergence Analysis. In NOREBA, we enable non-speculative out-of-order commit and resource reclamation in a light-weight manner, improving performance and efficiency. We accomplish this through a combination of (1) automatic compiler annotation of true branch dependencies, and (2) an efficient re-design of the reorder buffer from traditional processors. By exploiting compiler branch dependency information, this system achieves 95% of the performance of aggressive, speculative solutions, without any additional speculation, and while maintaining energy efficiency.