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X86 Microarchitectures
x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introduced in 1978 as a fully 16-bit extension of Intel's 8-bit 8080 microprocessor, with memory segmentation as a solution for addressing more memory than can be covered by a plain 16-bit address. The term "x86" came into being because the names of several successors to Intel's 8086 processor end in "86", including the 80186, 80286, 80386 and 80486 processors. The term is not synonymous with IBM PC compatibility, as this implies a multitude of other computer hardware. Embedded systems and general-purpose computers used x86 chips before the PC-compatible market started, some of them before the IBM PC (1981) debut. , most desktop and laptop computers sold are based on the x86 architecture family, while mobile categories such as smartphones or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series of instruction sets, the instruction sets found in most personal computers (PCs). Incorporated in Delaware, Intel ranked No. 45 in the 2020 ''Fortune'' 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for nearly a decade, from 2007 to 2016 fiscal years. Intel supplies microprocessors for computer system manufacturers such as Acer, Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Intel also manufactures motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphics chips, embedded processors and other devices related to communications and computing. Intel (''int''egrated and ''el''ectronics) was founded on July 18, 1968, by semiconductor pioneers Gordon Moore (of Moore's law) and Robert Noyce ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mode. With 64-bit mode and the new paging mode, it supports vastly larger amounts of virtual memory and physical memory than was possible on its 32-bit predecessors, allowing programs to store larger amounts of data in memory. x86-64 also expands general-purpose registers to 64-bit, and expands the number of them from 8 (some of which had limited or fixed functionality, e.g. for stack management) to 16 (fully general), and provides numerous other enhancements. Floating-point arithmetic is supported via mandatory SSE2-like instructions, and x87/ MMX style registers are generally not used (but still available even in 64-bit mode); instead, a set of 16 vector registers, 128 bits each, is used. (Each register can store one or two double-preci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CLMUL Instruction Set
Carry-less Multiplication (CLMUL) is an extension to the x86 instruction set used by microprocessors from Intel and AMD which was proposed by Intel in March 2008 and made available in the Intel Westmere processors announced in early 2010. Mathematically, the instruction implements multiplication of polynomials over the finite field GF(2) where the bitstring a_0a_1\ldots a_ represents the polynomial a_0 + a_1X + a_2X^2 + \cdots + a_X^. The CLMUL instruction also allows a more efficient implementation of the closely related multiplication of larger finite fields GF(2''k'') than the traditional instruction set. One use of these instructions is to improve the speed of applications doing block cipher encryption in Galois/Counter Mode, which depends on finite field GF(2''k'') multiplication. Another application is the fast calculation of CRC values, including those used to implement the LZ77 sliding window DEFLATE algorithm in zlib and pngcrush. ARMv8 also has a version of CLMUL. SP ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AES-NI
An Advanced Encryption Standard instruction set is now integrated into many processors. The purpose of the instruction set is to improve the speed and security of applications performing encryption and decryption using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). They are often implemented as instructions implementing a single round of AES along with a special version for the last round which has a slightly different method. The side channel attack surface of AES is reduced when implemented in an instruction set, compared to when AES is implemented in software only. x86 architecture processors AES-NI (or the Intel Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions; AES-NI) was the first major implementation. AES-NI is an extension to the x86 instruction set architecture for microprocessors from Intel and AMD proposed by Intel in March 2008. Instructions Intel The following Intel processors support the AES-NI instruction set: * Westmere based processors, specifically: ** Westmere- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SSE4
SSE4 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4) is a SIMD CPU instruction set used in the Intel Core microarchitecture and AMD K10 (K8L). It was announced on September 27, 2006, at the Fall 2006 Intel Developer Forum, with vague details in a white paper; more precise details of 47 instructions became available at the Spring 2007 Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, in the presentation. SSE4 is fully compatible with software written for previous generations of Intel 64 and IA-32 architecture microprocessors. All existing software continues to run correctly without modification on microprocessors that incorporate SSE4, as well as in the presence of existing and new applications that incorporate SSE4. SSE4 subsets Intel SSE4 consists of 54 instructions. A subset consisting of 47 instructions, referred to as ''SSE4.1'' in some Intel documentation, is available in Penryn. Additionally, ''SSE4.2'', a second subset consisting of the 7 remaining instructions, is first available in Nehalem-based Core i7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SSSE3
Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSSE3 or SSE3S) is a SIMD instruction set created by Intel and is the fourth iteration of the SSE technology. History SSSE3 was first introduced with Intel processors based on the Core microarchitecture on June 26, 2006 with the "Woodcrest" Xeons. SSSE3 has been referred to by the codenames Tejas New Instructions (TNI) or Merom New Instructions (MNI) for the first processor designs intended to support it. Functionality SSSE3 contains 16 new discrete instructions. Each instruction can act on 64-bit MMX or 128-bit XMM registers. Therefore, Intel's materials refer to 32 new instructions. They include: * Twelve instructions that perform horizontal addition or subtraction operations. * Six instructions that evaluate absolute values. * Two instructions that perform multiply-and-add operations and speed up the evaluation of dot products. * Two instructions that accelerate packed integer multiply operations and produce integer values with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SSE3
SSE3, Streaming SIMD Extensions 3, also known by its Intel code name Prescott New Instructions (PNI), is the third iteration of the SSE instruction set for the IA-32 (x86) architecture. Intel introduced SSE3 in early 2004 with the Prescott revision of their Pentium 4 CPU. In April 2005, AMD introduced a subset of SSE3 in revision E (Venice and San Diego) of their Athlon 64 CPUs. The earlier SIMD instruction sets on the x86 platform, from oldest to newest, are MMX, 3DNow! (developed by AMD, but not supported by Intel processors), SSE, and SSE2. SSE3 contains 13 new instructions over SSE2. Changes The most notable change is the capability to work horizontally in a register, as opposed to the more or less strictly vertical operation of all previous SSE instructions. More specifically, instructions to add and subtract the multiple values stored within a single register have been added. These instructions can be used to speed up the implementation of a number of DSP and 3D operati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simultaneous Multithreading
Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is a technique for improving the overall efficiency of superscalar CPUs with hardware multithreading. SMT permits multiple independent threads of execution to better use the resources provided by modern processor architectures. Details The term ''multithreading'' is ambiguous, because not only can multiple threads be executed simultaneously on one CPU core, but also multiple tasks (with different page tables, different task state segments, different protection rings, different I/O permissions, etc.). Although running on the same core, they are completely separated from each other. Multithreading is similar in concept to preemptive multitasking but is implemented at the thread level of execution in modern superscalar processors. Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is one of the two main implementations of multithreading, the other form being temporal multithreading (also known as super-threading). In temporal multithreading, only one thread of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NX Bit
The NX bit (no-execute) is a technology used in CPUs to segregate areas of memory for use by either storage of processor instructions or for storage of data, a feature normally only found in Harvard architecture processors. However, the NX bit is being increasingly used in conventional von Neumann architecture processors for security reasons. An operating system with support for the NX bit may mark certain areas of memory as non-executable. The processor will then refuse to execute any code residing in these areas of memory. The general technique, known as executable space protection, also called Write XOR Execute, is used to prevent certain types of malicious software from taking over computers by inserting their code into another program's data storage area and running their own code from within this section; one class of such attacks is known as the buffer overflow attack. The term NX bit originated with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), as a marketing term. Intel markets the feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SSE2
SSE2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2) is one of the Intel SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) processor supplementary instruction sets first introduced by Intel with the initial version of the Pentium 4 in 2000. It extends the earlier Streaming SIMD Extensions, SSE instruction set, and is intended to fully replace MMX (instruction set), MMX. Intel extended SSE2 to create SSE3 in 2004. SSE2 added 144 new instructions to SSE, which has 70 instructions. Competing chip-maker AMD added support for SSE2 with the introduction of their Opteron and Athlon 64 ranges of x86-64, AMD64 64-bit CPUs in 2003. Features Most of the SSE2 instructions implement the integer vector operations also found in MMX. Instead of the MMX registers they use the XMM registers, which are wider and allow for significant performance improvements in specialized applications. Another advantage of replacing MMX with SSE2 is avoiding the mode switching penalty for issuing x87 instructions present in MMX because it i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advanced Configuration And Power Interface
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is an open standard that operating systems can use to discover and configure computer hardware components, to perform power management (e.g. putting unused hardware components to sleep), auto configuration (e.g. Plug and Play and hot swapping), and status monitoring. First released in December 1996, ACPI aims to replace Advanced Power Management (APM), the MultiProcessor Specification, and the Plug and Play BIOS (PnP) Specification. ACPI brings power management under the control of the operating system, as opposed to the previous BIOS-centric system that relied on platform-specific firmware to determine power management and configuration policies. The specification is central to the Operating System-directed configuration and Power Management (OSPM) system. ACPI defines hardware abstraction interfaces between the device's firmware (e.g. BIOS, UEFI), the computer hardware components, and the operating systems. Internally, ACPI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machine Check Architecture
In computing, Machine Check Architecture (MCA) is an Intel and AMD mechanism in which the CPU reports hardware errors to the operating system. Intel's P6 and Pentium 4 family processors, AMD's K7 and K8 family processors, as well as the Itanium architecture implement a machine check architecture that provides a mechanism for detecting and reporting hardware (machine) errors, such as: system bus errors, ECC errors, parity errors, cache errors, and translation lookaside buffer errors. It consists of a set of model-specific registers (MSRs) that are used to set up machine checking and additional banks of MSRs used for recording errors that are detected. See also * Machine-check exception (MCE) * High availability (HA) * Reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) * Windows Hardware Error Architecture Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) is an operating system hardware error handling mechanism introduced with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 as a successor to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
