Method and apparatus for determining branch addresses in programs generated by binary translation

Binary translation allows to maintain compatibility across different architectures while still executing at native speeds. To this end, the original program is treated as input to a binary translator which analyzes the program and generates equivalent code for the current base architecture. Binary translation can either occur as a separate step prior to program execution, also referred to as 'static binary compilation', or binary translation can occur for each code fragment in the original program as it is executed for the first time during program execution, also referred to as 'dynamic binary translation' [1]. Alternatively, special purpose hardware can translate instructions on the fly either during the instruction decode, instruction fetch or instruction cache miss phases in program execution.