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Tag Archive for cpu

Do compilers have to be written for each model of CPU?

Do you need to take account of the different processors and their instructions when writing a compiler? Have instructions been standardised? Or what tools and techniques are available to assist with this? E.g. Ignoring machine instructions that are specific to a certain processor model.

Instruction vs data cache usage

Say I’ve got a cache memory where instruction and data have different cache memories (“Harvard architecture”). Which cache, instruction or data, is used most often? I mean “most often” as in time, not amount of data since data memory might be used “more” in terms of amount of data while instruction cache might be used “more often” especially depending on the program.

What are CPU registers?

This question has been bothering me for some time now and today I figured I would Google it. I’ve read some stuff about it and it seemed very similar to what I’ve always known as processor cache.

How long is a typical modern microprocessor pipeline?

I learnt some about pipelining but those were 4-stage and 5-stage and I think that modern pipelining typical is much longer and more complicated in practice. How long are typical pipelines and how much can we expect them to increase and where is the point of reaching diminshing returns in performance gains for longer pipelines?