Register renaming (1)

• Use a physical register file larger than the ISA logical one

• Keep a mapping table logical - physical correspondence

• Keep a free list of empty physical registers

• When instruction is decoded

  • Give a new name to result register from the free list
  • Give source operands their physical names (from mapping table)

• When a physical register has been read for the last time, return it to the free list

  • Simpler to wait till logical register has been assigned a new name by a later instruction and that later instruction has been committed

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