Editing Speculative execution (section)

==Overview==
Modern [[instruction pipeline|pipelined]] [[microprocessor]]s use speculative execution to reduce the cost of [[conditional branch]] instructions using schemes that predict the execution path of a program based on the history of branch executions.<ref name="DivisionRaghavan1998"/> In order to improve performance and utilization of computer resources, instructions can be scheduled at a time when it has not yet been determined that the instructions will need to be executed, ahead of a [[branch predictor|branch]].<ref name="Krieg-Brückner1992">{{cite book|author=Bernd Krieg-Brückner|title=ESOP '92: 4th European Symposium on Programming, Rennes, France, February 26-28, 1992: proceedings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQbhbphyOsoC&pg=PA56|access-date=18 January 2011|year=1992|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-540-55253-6|pages=56–57}}</ref>