It speculates of course but because the speculation is so shallow it can't read then pass on privileged information before the mis-speculation is caught. EDIT:

It speculates of course but because the speculation is so shallow it can't read then pass on privileged information before the mis-speculation is caught. EDIT: Oh, I should also point out that it isn't just branches. A pipelined processor is also speculating if it continues issuing institutions before memory accesses are fully resolved, because those accesses might result in exceptions that render the following instructions invalid.