Yes, absolutely right. That decoder is also beastly. Of course, fixed (nearly) length ARM instructions make the problem a lot easier. x86 instruction format

Yes, absolutely right. That decoder is also beastly. Of course, fixed (nearly) length ARM instructions make the problem a lot easier. x86 instruction format and length variance is just ridiculous. Intel has saddled themselves with years of complexity and it has become a big obstacle for them. They have always muscled through it by throwing process innovation at the problem, but recent stumbles leave them trapped in a box of their own creation. Intel is a great company and I expect them to dig out of this, but it is tough right now.