Architectural state
is the collection of information in a
computer system
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
that defines the
state of a program during execution. Architectural state includes
main memory, architectural registers, and the
program counter. Architectural state is defined by the
instruction set architecture and can be manipulated by the programmer using instructions. A
core dump
In computing, a core dump, memory dump, crash dump, storage dump, system dump, or ABEND dump consists of the recorded state of the working memory of a computer program at a specific time, generally when the program has crashed or otherwise termina ...
is a file recording the architectural state of a computer program at some point in time, such as when it has crashed.
Examples of architectural state include:
*
Main Memory (Primary storage)
*
Control register
A control register is a processor register which changes or controls the general behavior of a CPU or other digital device. Common tasks performed by control registers include interrupt control, switching the addressing mode, paging control, ...
s
** Instruction flag registers (such as EFLAGS in
x86
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 intr ...
)
**
Interrupt mask registers
**
Memory management unit
A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit having all memory references passed through itself, primarily performing the translation of virtual memory addresses to physical a ...
registers
**
Status register
A status register, flag register, or condition code register (CCR) is a collection of status flag bits for a processor. Examples of such registers include FLAGS register in the x86 architecture, flags in the program status word (PSW) register in ...
s
*
General purpose registers
A processor register is a quickly accessible location available to a computer's processor. Registers usually consist of a small amount of fast storage, although some registers have specific hardware functions, and may be read-only or write-only. ...
(such as AX, BX, CX, DX, etc. in
x86
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 intr ...
)
**
Adder registers
**
Address registers
**
Counter registers
**
Index registers
An index register in a computer's CPU is a processor register (or an assigned memory location) used for pointing to operand addresses during the run of a program. It is useful for stepping through strings and arrays. It can also be used for hol ...
**
Stack registers
** String registers
Architectural state is not microarchitectural state. Microarchitectural state is hidden machine state used for implementing the
microarchitecture. Examples of microarchitectural state include
pipeline registers,
cache
Cache, caching, or caché may refer to:
Places United States
* Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County
* Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah
* Cache County ...
tags, and
branch predictor
In computer architecture, a branch predictor is a digital circuit that tries to guess which way a branch (e.g., an if–then–else structure) will go before this is known definitively. The purpose of the branch predictor is to improve the flow ...
state. While microarchitectural state can change to suit the needs of each processor implementation in a processor family, binary compatibility among processors in a processor family requires a common architectural state.
Architectural state naturally does not include state-less elements of a computer such as busses and computation units (e.g., the
ALU).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Architectural State
Central processing unit