The registers inside the CPU, the machine code instruction set, and the ways in which the instructions interact with the registers and status flags are all intertwined. As you may recall, one of my ...

If instruction sets didn't matter, processors would be cheaper and designers would have more options. That's why one startup's efforts are so intriguing. Every microprocessor is different, in part ...

An Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) defines the software interface through which for example a central processor unit (CPU) is controlled. Unlike early computer systems which didn’t define a ...

Why it matters: Intel is gearing up for what the company considers the "next major step" in the evolution of the original x86 instruction set architecture (ISA). The Santa Clara corporation is ...

Most of us will be familiar at some level with the operation of a basic CPU, usually through exposure to microprocessors of the type that find their way into our projects. We can look at its internal ...

Forward-looking: After being beaten by AMD in introducing the first, truly 64-bit instruction set in the x86 CPU world, Intel is now trying to get ahead of its historical competitor by working on a ...

It has been a long time coming, and it might have been better if this had been done a decade ago. But with a big injection of open source spirit from its acquisition of Red Hat, IBM is finally taking ...

Most processors run a single instruction set. But the ARM1026EJ-S implements four in hardware, including 32-bit ARM instructions, 16-bit ARM Thumb instructions, ARM DSP instructions, and Java ...

For those not immediately familiar with RISC-V, it is a relatively new CPU architecture which takes advantage of Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) principles. RISC-V is an open standard ...

The area of any part of a design contributes both to the silicon cost and to the power consumption. A simplistic following of the “A” in a processor IP vendor’s PPA numbers can be misleading. A ...

This proposed instruction set is intended to run on both virtual and physical incarnations of the 4-Bit HRRG Computer As you may recall, my chum Chewy is interested in designing and building a 4-bit ...

An instruction set architecture (ISA) defines the set of basic operations a computer must support. This includes the functional definition of operations and precise descriptions of how to invoke and ...