GATE CSE 2022 Q61: Speed-up from a branch predictor with 80% accuracy
- Computer Organization and Architecture
- 2 marks
- NAT
- No negative marking
Question
A processor operating at 2 GHz has a standard 5-stage RISC instruction pipeline having a base CPI (cycles per instruction) of one without any pipeline hazards. For a given program P that has 30% branch instructions, control hazards incur 2 cycles stall for every branch. A new version of the processor operating at same clock frequency has an additional branch predictor unit (BPU) that completely eliminates stalls for correctly predicted branches. There is neither any savings nor any additional stalls for wrong predictions. There are no structural hazards and data hazards for and . If the BPU has a prediction accuracy of 80%, the speed up (rounded off to two decimal places) obtained by over in executing P is____________.
Try it: numerical answer: type the value
Show answer and explanation
Answer: 1.42 to 1.45 (official GATE 2022 final answer key)
Concept used: Effective CPI = base CPI + (branch fraction × stall cycles per stalled branch); speed-up is the CPI ratio at equal clock.
First step: and .
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Source: official GATE 2022 CS question paper and final answer key, organised by IIT Kharagpur. Question paper · Answer key
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