Method, apparatus and system embodiments provide a register to track the
oldest exception event or sticky event in a processor. The processor may
be an out-of-order processor. Dispatched instructions (or micro-ops) may
be maintained in a queue, such as a reorder buffer (ROB), for in-order
retirement. For at least one embodiment, event information is maintained
only in the register and is not maintained in a ROB. For at least one
other embodiment, event information is maintained in a ROB entry for some
events and in the register for others. For such latter embodiment, a
retire engine takes the contents of both the ROB entry and the register
into account when determining whether to take an exception or otherwise
initiate a handling sequence during in-order instruction retirement.
Other embodiments are also described and claimed.