Intel asm opcodes are translated to processor-specific microcode instructions. The "microcode updates" actually rewrite the microprograms for each opcode. If us

Intel asm opcodes are translated to processor-specific microcode instructions. The "microcode updates" actually rewrite the microprograms for each opcode. If users had access to microcode(not likely anytime soon) very powerful optimizations could be done to create optimal instruction sets for each task. Another approach is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_instruction_set_computing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_instruction_set_computing Which allows programming the CPU directly without relying on static instruction sets(essentially programming at or below microcode level).