Implementing Forwarding


The following figure shows the hardware necessary to support forwarding for operations that use results during the EX and MEM stages. Two multiplexors are added at the inputs of A and B registers in the ID/EX pipeline register and two kinds of data are forwarded: Two signals, ForwardA and ForwardB, control forwarding. They are generated by a forwarding unit in the ID stage.

The top figure is the pipelined datapath without forwarding and the bottom one is the datapath with forwarding hardware including two extra multiplexors and two more control signals.
 ↑ No forwarding                  ↓ With forwarding




      The name Susan Thompson rings a bell (sound familiar).    
      I think she worked here—let me look it up.