4 ms·
Another good example of this is in microprocessor architecture. A long time ago instructions were added to the x86 architecture to make life easier for assembl
by dkasper 18y ago
Another good example of this is in microprocessor architecture.
A long time ago instructions were added to the x86 architecture to make life easier for assembly programmers. These instructions are large and take many clock cycles to execute.
Today since most people don't code in assembly and because modern processors have longer pipelines these instructions are rarely used. However Intel and AMD still have to support them on every x86 chip to maintain backwards compatibility despite the fact that they aren't adding much "value".
- derefr 18y agoCan't they just make a deal with all the major operating system vendors to solve the problem in software?
- gaius 18y agoI'm not sure how much of an issue that really is. A modern x86 processor is a decoder for the x86 instruction set in front of a RISC core to do the actual work. x86 instructions are not directly executed anymore. So long as it's efficient instructions by the time it reaches the core, who really cares how many cycles it took on the original hardware?
- Lozzer 18y agoI think the issue is more about wasted space on the chip rather than performance.