Branch Prediction and Speculation MCQs

1. Branch prediction is a technique used to:

(A) Predict arithmetic results

(B) Predict memory addresses

(C) Predict the next instruction in the pipeline

(D) Predict the outcome of a conditional branch

2. Speculation in CPU architecture refers to:

(A) Predicting memory locations

(B) Executing instructions before they are known to be needed

(C) Predicting user inputs

(D) Delaying instructions for accuracy

3. The accuracy of branch prediction directly affects:

(A) CPU clock speed

(B) Pipeline performance

(C) Instruction set complexity

(D) Memory hierarchy

4. Which type of branch predictor uses the outcome of previous branches to make predictions?

(A) Static branch predictor

(B) Dynamic branch predictor

(C) Local branch predictor

(D) Global branch predictor

5. What is a key advantage of dynamic branch prediction?

(A) Simplicity

(B) Low power consumption

(C) Higher accuracy

(D) Reduced cost

6. A common technique to handle mispredicted branches is:

(A) Pipeline stalling

(B) Speculative execution

(C) Register renaming

(D) Re-fetching the instruction

7. The two-level adaptive branch prediction scheme uses:

(A) Two levels of cache

(B) Two levels of history

(C) Two levels of memory

(D) Two types of instructions

8. In static branch prediction, the CPU makes decisions based on:

(A) The branch history

(B) A predefined rule

(C) User input

(D) Compiler optimization

9. A common static branch prediction technique is:

(A) Always predicting “taken”

(B) Always predicting “not taken”

(C) Random prediction

(D) Both A and B

10. Which of the following is not a type of dynamic branch predictor?

(A) Bimodal predictor

(B) Two-level adaptive predictor

(C) Gshare predictor

(D) Constant predictor