This patch sets the default latency of the division microop to a single cycle
on x86. This is because the division instructions DIV and IDIV have been
implemented as loops of div microops, where each microop computes a single bit
of the quotient.
The o3 cpu instruction queue model uses the count variable to track the number
of unissued instructions in the queue. Previously, the squash method used
this variable to avoid executing the doSquash method when there were no
unissued instructions in the pipeline. A corner case problem exists when
only issued instructions exist in the pipeline and a squash occurs; the
doSquash code is not invoked and subsequently does not clean up state properly.
The totalInstructions counter is only incremented when the whole instruction is
commited and not on every microop. It was incorrectly reset in atomic and
timing cpus.
Committed by: Nilay Vaish <nilay@cs.wisc.edu>"
The variable is used in only one place and a whole new function setNextStatus()
has been defined just to compute the value of the variable. Instead of calling
the function, the value is now computed in the loop that preceded the function
call.
Now, prior to the renaming, the instruction requests the exact amount of
registers it will need, and the rename_map decides whether the instruction is
allowed to proceed or not.
This patch fixes a long-standing isue with the port flow
control. Before this patch the retry mechanism was shared between all
different packet classes. As a result, a snoop response could get
stuck behind a request waiting for a retry, even if the send/recv
functions were split. This caused message-dependent deadlocks in
stress-test scenarios.
The patch splits the retry into one per packet (message) class. Thus,
sendTimingReq has a corresponding recvReqRetry, sendTimingResp has
recvRespRetry etc. Most of the changes to the code involve simply
clarifying what type of request a specific object was accepting.
The biggest change in functionality is in the cache downstream packet
queue, facing the memory. This queue was shared by requests and snoop
responses, and it is now split into two queues, each with their own
flow control, but the same physical MasterPort. These changes fixes
the previously seen deadlocks.
Only the instruction address is actually checked, so there's no need to check
repeatedly while we're working through the microops of a macroop and that's
not changing.
In case the memory subsystem sends a combined response with invalidate
(e.g. ReadRespWithInvalidate), we cannot ignore the invalidate part
of the response.
If we were to ignore the invalidate part, under certain circumstances
this effectively leads to reordering of loads to the same address
which is not permitted under any memory consistency model implemented
in gem5.
Consider the case where a later load's address is computed before an
earlier load in program order, and is therefore sent to the memory
subsystem first. At some point the earlier load's address is computed
and in doing so correctly marks the later load as a
possibleLoadViolation. In the meantime some other node writes and
sends invalidations to all other nodes. The invalidation races with
the later load's ReadResp, and arrives before ReadResp and is
deferred. Upon receipt of the ReadResp, the response is changed to
ReadRespWithInvalidate, and sent to the CPU. If we ignore the
invalidate part of the packet, we let the later load read the old
value of the address. Eventually the earlier load's ReadResp arrives,
but with new data. As there was no invalidate snoop (sunk into the
ReadRespWithInvalidate), and if we did not process the invalidate of
the ReadRespWithInvalidate, we obtain a load reordering.
A similar scenario can be constructed where the earlier load's address
is computed after ReadRespWithInvalidate arrives for the younger
load. In this case hitExternalSnoop needs to be set to true on the
ReadRespWithInvalidate, so that upon knowing the address of the
earlier load, checkViolations will cause the later load to be
squashed.
Finally we must account for the case where both loads are sent to the
memory subsystem (reordered), a snoop invalidate arrives and correctly
sets the later loads fault to ReExec. However, before the CPU
processes the fault, the later load's ReadResp arrives and the
writeback discards the outstanding fault. We must add a check to
ensure that we do not skip any unprocessed faults.
Move the packet deallocations in the O3 CPU so that the completeDataAccess
deals only with the LSQ specific parts and the generic recvTimingResp frees the
packet in all other cases.
This patch simplifies how we deal with dynamically allocated data in
the packet, always assuming that it is array allocated, and hence
should be array deallocated (delete[] as opposed to delete). The only
uses of dataDynamic was in the Ruby testers.
The ARRAY_DATA flag in the packet is removed accordingly. No
defragmentation of the flags is done at this point, leaving a gap in
the bit masks.
As the last part the patch, it renames dataDynamicArray to dataDynamic.
This patch takes a first step in tightening up how we use the data
pointer in write packets. A const getter is added for the pointer
itself (getConstPtr), and a number of member functions are also made
const accordingly. In a range of places throughout the memory system
the new member is used.
The patch also removes the unused isReadWrite function.
Another churn to clean up undefined behaviour, mostly ARM, but some
parts also touching the generic part of the code base.
Most of the fixes are simply ensuring that proper intialisation. One
of the more subtle changes is the return type of the sign-extension,
which is changed to uint64_t. This is to avoid shifting negative
values (undefined behaviour) in the ISA code.
Mwait works as follows:
1. A cpu monitors an address of interest (monitor instruction)
2. A cpu calls mwait - this loads the cache line into that cpu's cache.
3. The cpu goes to sleep.
4. When another processor requests write permission for the line, it is
evicted from the sleeping cpu's cache. This eviction is forwarded to the
sleeping cpu, which then wakes up.
Committed by: Nilay Vaish <nilay@cs.wisc.edu>
It is possible for the O3 CPU to consider itself drained and
later have a squashed instruction perform a writeback. This
patch re-adds tracking of in-flight instructions to prevent
falsely signaling a drained event.
IEW did not check the instQueue and memDepUnit to ensure
they were drained. This caused issues when drainSanityCheck()
did check those structures after asserting IEW was drained.
This patch takes quite a large step in transitioning from the ad-hoc
RefCountingPtr to the c++11 shared_ptr by adopting its use for all
Faults. There are no changes in behaviour, and the code modifications
are mostly just replacing "new" with "make_shared".
This patch transitions the o3 MemDepEntry from the ad-hoc
RefCountingPtr to the c++11 shared_ptr. There are no changes in
behaviour, and the code modifications are mainly replacing "new" with
"make_shared".
This changeset adds probe points that can be used to implement PMU
counters for CPU stats. The following probes are supported:
* BaseCPU::ppCycles / Cycles
* BaseCPU::ppRetiredInsts / RetiredInsts
* BaseCPU::ppRetiredLoads / RetiredLoads
* BaseCPU::ppRetiredStores / RetiredStores
* BaseCPU::ppRetiredBranches RetiredBranches
The Ozone CPU is now very much out of date and completely
non-functional, with no one actively working on restoring it. It is a
source of confusion for new users who attempt to use it before
realizing its current state. RIP
This patch optimises the passing of StaticInstPtr by avoiding copying
the reference-counting pointer. This avoids first incrementing and
then decrementing the reference-counting pointer.
The call paths for de-scheduling a thread are halt() and suspend(), from
the thread context. There is no call to deallocateContext() in general,
though some CPUs chose to define it. This patch removes the function
from BaseCPU and the cores which do not require it.
activate(), suspend(), and halt() used on thread contexts had an optional
delay parameter. However this parameter was often ignored. Also, when used,
the delay was seemily arbitrarily set to 0 or 1 cycle (no other delays were
ever specified). This patch removes the delay parameter and 'Events'
associated with them across all ISAs and cores. Unused activate logic
is also removed.
This patch does a bit of housekeeping on the string helper functions
and relies on the C++11 standard library where possible. It also does
away with our custom string hash as an implementation is already part
of the standard library.
This patch changes how faults are passed between methods in an attempt
to copy as few reference-counting pointer instances as possible. This
should avoid unecessary copies being created, contributing to the
increment/decrement of the reference counters.
For X86, the o3 CPU would get stuck with the commit stage not being
drained if an interrupt arrived while drain was pending. isDrained()
makes sure that pcState.microPC() == 0, thus ensuring that we are at
an instruction boundary. However, when we take an interrupt we
execute:
pcState.upc(romMicroPC(entry));
pcState.nupc(romMicroPC(entry) + 1);
tc->pcState(pcState);
As a result, the MicroPC is no longer zero. This patch ensures the drain is
delayed until no interrupts are present. Once draining, non-synchronous
interrupts are deffered until after the switch.
Analogous to ee049bf (for x86). Requires a bump of the checkpoint version
and corresponding upgrader code to move the condition code register values
to the new register file.
This patch fixes the load blocked/replay mechanism in the o3 cpu. Rather than
flushing the entire pipeline, this patch replays loads once the cache becomes
unblocked.
Additionally, deferred memory instructions (loads which had conflicting stores),
when replayed would not respect the number of functional units (only respected
issue width). This patch also corrects that.
Improvements over 20% have been observed on a microbenchmark designed to
exercise this behavior.
O3 is supposed to stop fetching instructions once a quiesce is encountered.
However due to a bug, it would continue fetching instructions from the current
fetch buffer. This is because of a break statment that only broke out of the
first of 2 nested loops. It should have broken out of both.
The o3 cpu could attempt to schedule inactive threads under round-robin SMT
mode.
This is because it maintained an independent priority list of threads from the
active thread list. This priority list could be come stale once threads were
inactive, leading to the cpu trying to fetch/commit from inactive threads.
Additionally the fetch queue is now forcibly flushed of instrctuctions
from the de-scheduled thread.
Relevant output:
24557000: system.cpu: [tid:1]: Calling deactivate thread.
24557000: system.cpu: [tid:1]: Removing from active threads list
24557500: system.cpu:
FullO3CPU: Ticking main, FullO3CPU.
24557500: system.cpu.fetch: Running stage.
24557500: system.cpu.fetch: Attempting to fetch from [tid:1]
This patch adds a fetch queue that sits between fetch and decode to the
o3 cpu. This effectively decouples fetch from decode stalls allowing it
to be more aggressive, running futher ahead in the instruction stream.
The o3 pipeline interlock/stall logic is incorrect. o3 unnecessicarily stalled
fetch and decode due to later stages in the pipeline. In general, a stage
should usually only consider if it is stalled by the adjacent, downstream stage.
Forcing stalls due to later stages creates and results in bubbles in the
pipeline. Additionally, o3 stalled the entire frontend (fetch, decode, rename)
on a branch mispredict while the ROB is being serially walked to update the
RAT (robSquashing). Only should have stalled at rename.
As highlighed on the mailing list gem5's writeback modeling can impact
performance. This patch removes the limitation on maximum outstanding issued
instructions, however the number that can writeback in a single cycle is still
respected in instToCommit().
We currently generate and compile one version of the ISA code per CPU
model. This is obviously wasting a lot of resources at compile
time. This changeset factors out the interface into a separate
ExecContext class, which also serves as documentation for the
interface between CPUs and the ISA code. While doing so, this
changeset also fixes up interface inconsistencies between the
different CPU models.
The main argument for using one set of ISA code per CPU model has
always been performance as this avoid indirect branches in the
generated code. However, this argument does not hold water. Booting
Linux on a simulated ARM system running in atomic mode
(opt/10.linux-boot/realview-simple-atomic) is actually 2% faster
(compiled using clang 3.4) after applying this patch. Additionally,
compilation time is decreased by 35%.
Check for free entries in Load Queue and Store Queue separately to
avoid cases when load cannot be renamed due to full Store Queue and
vice versa.
This work was done while Binh was an intern at AMD Research.
Using '== true' in a boolean expression is totally redundant,
and using '== false' is pretty verbose (and arguably less
readable in most cases) compared to '!'.
It's somewhat of a pet peeve, perhaps, but I had some time
waiting for some tests to run and decided to clean these up.
Unfortunately, SLICC appears not to have the '!' operator,
so I had to leave the '== false' tests in the SLICC code.
This patch removes the stat totalCommittedInsts. This variable was used for
recording the total number of instructions committed across all the threads
of a core. The instructions committed by each thread are recorded invidually.
The total would now be generated by summing these individual counts.
For the o3, add instruction mix (OpClass) histogram at commit (stats
also already collected at issue). For the simple CPUs we add a
histogram of executed instructions
Allow the specification of a socket ID for every core that is reflected in the
MPIDR field in ARM systems. This allows studying multi-socket / cluster
systems with ARM CPUs.
In the O3 LSQ, data read/written is printed out in DPRINTFs. However,
the data field is treated as a character string with a null terminated.
However the data field is not encoded this way. This patch removes
that possibility by removing the data part of the print.
O3CPU has a compile-time maximum width set in o3/impl.hh, but checking
the configuration against this limit was not implemented anywhere
except for fetch. Configuring a wider pipe than the limit can silently
cause various issues during the simulation. This patch adds the proper
checking in the constructor of the various pipeline stages.
A number of calls to isEmpty() and numFreeEntries()
should be thread-specific.
In cpu.cc, the fact that tid is /*commented*/ out is a bug. Say the rob
has instructions from thread 0 (isEmpty() returns false), and none from
thread 1. If we are trying to squash all of thread 1, then
readTailInst(thread 1) will be called because rob->isEmpty() returns
false. The result is end_it is not in the list and the while
statement loops indefinitely back over the cpu's instList.
In iew_impl.hh, all threads are told they have the entire remaining IQ, when
each thread actually has a certain allocation. The result is extra stalls at
the iew dispatch stage which the rename stage usually takes care of.
In commit_impl.hh, rob->readHeadInst(thread 1) can be called if the rob only
contains instructions from thread 0. This returns a dummyInst (which may work
since we are trying to squash all instructions, but hardly seems like the right
way to do it).
In rob_impl.hh this fix skips the rest of the function more frequently and is
more efficient.
Committed by: Nilay Vaish <nilay@cs.wisc.edu>
This patch fixes violation of TSO in the O3CPU, as all loads must be
ordered with all other loads. In the LQ, if a snoop is observed, all
subsequent loads need to be squashed if the system is TSO.
Prior to this patch, the following case could be violated:
P0 | P1 ;
MOV [x],mail=/usr/spool/mail/nilay | MOV EAX,[y] ;
MOV [y],mail=/usr/spool/mail/nilay | MOV EBX,[x] ;
exists (1:EAX=1 /\ 1:EBX=0) [is a violation]
The problem was found using litmus [http://diy.inria.fr].
Committed by: Nilay Vaish <nilay@cs.wisc.edu
The CheckerCPU model in pre-v8 code was not checking the
updates to miscellaneous registers due to some methods
for setting misc regs were not instrumented. The v8 patches
exposed this by calling the instrumented misc reg update
methods and then invoking the checker before the main CPU had
updated its misc regs, leading to false positives about
register mismatches. This patch fixes the non-instrumented
misc reg update methods and places calls to the checker in
the proper places in the O3 model.
With ARMv8 support the same misc register id results in accessing different
registers depending on the current mode of the processor. This patch adds
the same orthogonality to the misc register file as the others (int, float, cc).
For all the othre ISAs this is currently a null-implementation.
Additionally, a system variable is added to all the ISA objects.
This patch add support for generating wake-up events in the CPU when an address
that is currently in the exclusive state is hit by a snoop. This mechanism is required
for ARMv8 multi-processor support.
This patch enables tracking of cache occupancy per thread along with
ages (in buckets) per cache blocks. Cache occupancy stats are
recalculated on each stat dump.
The probe patch is motivated by the desire to move analytical and trace code
away from functional code. This is achieved by the probe interface which is
essentially a glorified observer model.
What this means to users:
* add a probe point and a "notify" call at the source of an "event"
* add an isolated module, that is being used to carry out *your* analysis (e.g. generate a trace)
* register that module as a probe listener
Note: an example is given for reference in src/cpu/o3/simple_trace.[hh|cc] and src/cpu/SimpleTrace.py
What is happening under the hood:
* every SimObject maintains has a ProbeManager.
* during initialization (src/python/m5/simulate.py) first regProbePoints and
the regProbeListeners is called on each SimObject. this hooks up the probe
point notify calls with the listeners.
FAQs:
Why did you develop probe points:
* to remove trace, stats gathering, analytical code out of the functional code.
* the belief that probes could be generically useful.
What is a probe point:
* a probe point is used to notify upon a given event (e.g. cpu commits an instruction)
What is a probe listener:
* a class that handles whatever the user wishes to do when they are notified
about an event.
What can be passed on notify:
* probe points are templates, and so the user can generate probes that pass any
type of argument (by const reference) to a listener.
What relationships can be generated (1:1, 1:N, N:M etc):
* there isn't a restriction. You can hook probe points and listeners up in a
1:1, 1:N, N:M relationship. They become useful when a number of modules
listen to the same probe points. The idea being that you can add a small
number of probes into the source code and develop a larger number of useful
analysis modules that use information passed by the probes.
Can you give examples:
* adding a probe point to the cpu's commit method allows you to build a trace
module (outputting assembler), you could re-use this to gather instruction
distribution (arithmetic, load/store, conditional, control flow) stats.
Why is the probe interface currently restricted to passing a const reference:
* the desire, initially at least, is to allow an interface to observe
functionality, but not to change functionality.
* of course this can be subverted by const-casting.
What is the performance impact of adding probes:
* when nothing is actively listening to the probes they should have a
relatively minor impact. Profiling has suggested even with a large number of
probes (60) the impact of them (when not active) is very minimal (<1%).
Add some values and methods to the request object to track the translation
and access latency for a request and which level of the cache hierarchy responded
to the request.
This patch relaxes the check performed when squashing non-speculative
instructions, as it caused problems with loads that were marked ready,
and then stalled on a blocked cache. The assertion is now allowing
memory references to be non-faulting.
the current implementation of the fetch buffer in the o3 cpu
is only allowed to be the size of a cache line. some
architectures, e.g., ARM, have fetch buffers smaller than a cache
line, see slide 22 at:
http://www.arm.com/files/pdf/at-exploring_the_design_of_the_cortex-a15.pdf
this patch allows the fetch buffer to be set to values smaller
than a cache line.
Fix a problem in the O3 CPU for instructions that are both
memory loads and memory barriers (e.g. load acquire) and
to uncacheable memory. This combination can confuse the
commit stage into commitng an instruction that hasn't
executed and got it's value yet. At the same time refactor
the code slightly to remove duplication between two of
the cases.
LSQSenderState represents the LQ/SQ index using uint8_t, which supports up to
256 entries (including the sentinel entry). Sending packets to memory with a
higher index than 255 truncates the index, such that the response matches the
wrong entry. For instance, this can result in a deadlock if a store completion
does not clear the head entry.
Convert condition code registers from being specialized
("pseudo") integer registers to using the recently
added CC register class.
Nilay Vaish also contributed to this patch.
Restructured rename map and free list to clean up some
extraneous code and separate out common code that can
be reused across different register classes (int and fp
at this point). Both components now consist of a set
of Simple* objects that are stand-alone rename map &
free list for each class, plus a Unified* object that
presents a unified interface across all register
classes and then redirects accesses to the appropriate
Simple* object as needed.
Moved free list initialization to PhysRegFile to better
isolate knowledge of physical register index mappings
to that class (and remove the need to pass a number
of parameters to the free list constructor).
Causes a small change to these stats:
cpu.rename.int_rename_lookups
cpu.rename.fp_rename_lookups
because they are now categorized on a per-operand basis
rather than a per-instruction basis.
That is, an instruction with mixed fp/int/misc operand
types will have each operand categorized independently,
where previously the lookup was categorized based on
the instruction type.
Make these names more meaningful.
Specifically, made these substitutions:
s/FP_Base_DepTag/FP_Reg_Base/g;
s/Ctrl_Base_DepTag/Misc_Reg_Base/g;
s/Max_DepTag/Max_Reg_Index/g;
It had a bunch of fields (and associated constructor
parameters) thet it didn't really use, and the array
initialization was needlessly verbose.
Also just hardwired the getReg() method to aleays
return true for misc regs, rather than having an array
of bits that we always kept marked as ready.
No need for PhysRegFile to be a template class, or
have a pointer back to the CPU. Also made some methods
for checking the physical register type (int vs. float)
based on the phys reg index, which will come in handy later.
Move from a poorly documented scheme where the mapping
of unified architectural register indices to register
classes is hardcoded all over to one where there's an
enum for the register classes and a function that
encapsulates the mapping.
Previously, the LSQ would instantiate MaxThreads LSQUnits in the body of it's
object, but it would only initialize numThreads LSQUnits as specified by the
user. This had the effect of leaving some LSQUnits uninitialized when the
number of threads was less than MaxThreads, and when adding statistics to the
LSQUnit that must be initialized, this caused the stats initialization check to
fail. By dynamically instantiating LSQUnits, they are all initialized and this
avoids uninitialized LSQUnits from floating around during runtime.
The branch predictor is guarded by having either the in-order or
out-of-order CPU as one of the available CPU models and therefore
should not be used in the BaseCPU. This patch moves the parameter to
the relevant CPU classes.
This patch fixes a bug in the O3 fetch stage that was introduced when
the cache line size was moved to the system. By mistake, the
initialisation and resetting of the fetch stage was merged and put in
the constructor. The resetting is now re-added where it should be.
This patch removes the notion of a peer block size and instead sets
the cache line size on the system level.
Previously the size was set per cache, and communicated through the
interconnect. There were plenty checks to ensure that everyone had the
same size specified, and these checks are now removed. Another benefit
that is not yet harnessed is that the cache line size is now known at
construction time, rather than after the port binding. Hence, the
block size can be locally stored and does not have to be queried every
time it is used.
A follow-on patch updates the configuration scripts accordingly.
This patch adds the notion of source- and derived-clock domains to the
ClockedObjects. As such, all clock information is moved to the clock
domain, and the ClockedObjects are grouped into domains.
The clock domains are either source domains, with a specific clock
period, or derived domains that have a parent domain and a divider
(potentially chained). For piece of logic that runs at a derived clock
(a ratio of the clock its parent is running at) the necessary derived
clock domain is created from its corresponding parent clock
domain. For now, the derived clock domain only supports a divider,
thus ensuring a lower speed compared to its parent. Multiplier
functionality implies a PLL logic that has not been modelled yet
(create a separate clock instead).
The clock domains should be used as a mechanism to provide a
controllable clock source that affects clock for every clocked object
lying beneath it. The clock of the domain can (in a future patch) be
controlled by a handler responsible for dynamic frequency scaling of
the respective clock domains.
All the config scripts have been retro-fitted with clock domains. For
the System a default SrcClockDomain is created. For CPUs that run at a
different speed than the system, there is a seperate clock domain
created. This domain incorporates the CPU and the associated
caches. As before, Ruby runs under its own clock domain.
The clock period of all domains are pre-computed, such that no virtual
functions or multiplications are needed when calling
clockPeriod. Instead, the clock period is pre-computed when any
changes occur. For this to be possible, each clock domain tracks its
children.
This patch changes the IEW drain check to include the FU pool as there
can be instructions that are "stored" in FU completion events and thus
not covered by the existing checks. With this patch, we simply include
a check to see if all the FUs are considered non-busy in the next
tick.
Without this patch, the pc-switcheroo-full regression fails after
minor changes to the cache timing (aligning to clock edge).
Previously, nextCycle() could return the *current* cycle if the current tick was
already aligned with the clock edge. This behavior is not only confusing (not
quite what the function name implies), but also caused problems in the
drainResume() function. When exiting/re-entering the sim loop (e.g., to take
checkpoints), the CPUs will drain and resume. Due to the previous behavior of
nextCycle(), the CPU tick events were being rescheduled in the same ticks that
were already processed before draining. This caused divergence from runs that
did not exit/re-entered the sim loop. (Initially a cycle difference, but a
significant impact later on.)
This patch separates out the two behaviors (nextCycle() and clockEdge()),
uses nextCycle() in drainResume, and uses clockEdge() everywhere else.
Nothing (other than name) should change except for the drainResume timing.
This change fixes the switcheroo test that broke earlier this month. The code
that was checking for the pipeline being blocked wasn't checking for a pending
translation, only for a icache access.
Currently the commit stage keeps a local copy of the interrupt object.
Since the interrupt is usually handled several cycles after the commit
stage becomes aware of it, it is possible that the local copy of the
interrupt object may not be the interrupt that is actually handled.
It is possible that another interrupt occurred in the
interval between interrupt detection and interrupt handling.
This patch creates a copy of the interrupt just before the interrupt
is handled. The local copy is ignored.
This patch changes the port in the CPU classes to use MasterPort
instead of the derived CpuPort. The functions of the CpuPort are now
distributed across the relevant subclasses. The port accessor
functions (getInstPort and getDataPort) now return a MasterPort
instead of a CpuPort. This simplifies creating derivative CPUs that do
not use the CpuPort.
This change fixes the switcheroo test that broke earlier this month. The code
that was checking for the pipeline being blocked wasn't checking for a pending
translation, only for a icache access.
This patch address the most important name shadowing warnings (as
produced when using gcc/clang with -Wshadow). There are many
locations where constructor parameters and function parameters shadow
local variables, but these are left unchanged.
setMiscReg currently makes a new entry for each write to a misc reg without
checking for duplicates, this can cause a triggering of the assert if an
instruction get replayed and writes to the same misc regs multiple times.
This fix prevents duplicate entries and instead updates the value.
The rename can mis-handle serializing instructions (i.e. strex) if it gets
into a resource constrained situation and the serializing instruction has
to be placed on the skid buffer to handle blocking. In this situation the
instruction informs the pipeline it is serializing and logs that the next
instruction must be serialized, but since we are blocking the pipeline
defers this action to place the serializing instruction and
incoming instructions into the skid buffer. When resuming from blocking,
rename will pull the serializing instruction from the skid buffer and
the current logic will see this as the "next" instruction that has to
be serialized and because of flags set on the serializing instruction,
it passes through the pipeline stage as normal and resets rename to
non-serializing. This causes instructions to follow the serializing inst
incorrectly and eventually leads to an error in the pipeline. To fix this
rename should check first if it has to block before checking for serializing
instructions.
