Comparing DEC Alpha and Intel Pentium Processors
The main difference between the architectures of Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) Alpha and Intel's Pentium processors are the instruction sets. In this paper I intend on defining both RISC and CISC processors. In doing this I will be comparing DEC's Alpha 21164 (a microprocessor that implements the Alpha architecture) and also Intel's Pentium processors (from the Pentium-R through the Pentium II).
Reduced Instruction Set Computing or RISC processing is a CPU architecture with an instruction set that eliminates some (but not all) complex instructions by pairing down and reducing them in complexity so that instructions can be performed in a single processor cycle. This is accomplished through high-level compilers that breakdown the more complex, less frequently used instructions into simpler instructions. Thus, allowing the RISC architecture to im-plement a smaller instruction set that utilizes more registers and eliminating the need for microcode.
"The Alpha architecture is a 64-bit load and store RISC architecture designed with particular emphasis on speed, multiple instruction issue, multiple processors, and software migration from many operating systems." (1, pg. 1-1) Most recent CPU designs are superscalar and superpipelined. Superscalar means that the architecture provides two pipelines for executing multiple instructions in parallel. Superpipelining increases the number of pipeline stages, allowing for results from either pipeline to be simultaneously used to avoid stalls thus, improving data flow by removing data dependency. "The 21164 microprocessor is a superscalar pipelined processor manufactured using 0.5-micron CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semi-conducto...
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...esources
1. White papers on Alpha 21164, www.digital.com , July 1996
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6. Systems Architecture, Second edition, Stephen D. Burd, pg. 162-164 Course Technology (1998)
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Corporation, Maynard, Massachusetts (July 1996)
8. http://pds.jpl..nasa.gov/stdref/appC.htm#HDR8
9. Alpha Architecture Handbook, Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard Massachusetts (1996)
No surprises then that AMD has brought out their first six core part, following several months after AMD introduced the Magny Cours (Istanbul) 12 core server CPU. This CPU internally was made up of two six core dies, and as such it would have been a painless process to produce a CPU with just a single six core die. AMD has done exactly that and what we end up with is half a Magny Cours CPU or, as we like to refer to it, the best thing to come out of AMD in recent history.
“Which is better, AMD or Intel?” is a question that is constantly debated among people involved with computers. There are many reasons to choose one side over another, as both do have their advantages and disadvantages. Intel and AMD are the most prevalent processor production companies, which in turn creates competition between the two. This question is a by-product of that competition. Only by knowing each company and what their product has to offer, can a person make a decision as to what to buy to suit their needs.
memory it is caused by having to slow of memory on to fast of a bus.
“After the integrated circuits the only place to go was down—in size that it. Large scale integration (LS) could fit hundreds of components onto one chip. By the 1980’s, very large scale integration (VLSI) squeezed hundreds of thousands of components onto a chip. Ultra-Large scale integration (ULSI) increased that number into millions. The ability to fit so much onto an area about half the size of ...
This document describes the final project for the course COEN 283 – Operating System. The project is team oriented, main goal is to select a topic related the Operating System concepts that should be either theoretical, in which new algorithm is analysis and simulate, in which subsystem/driver of an OS is prototyped. Provide the simulation/implementation code and explain the detail design in this report. This project will provide opportunity for students to perform research on topic of interest of operating system.
A microcontroller is a small compact computer used to manage the operations of the systems inside motor vehicles, robots, mobile radio transceivers, home appliances, and various other devices (Techtarget, 2014). It is typically composed of a Central Processing Unit, a memory and input or output pins that look like minute hollow blocks (Quinstreet Inc, 2014). It originated way bay back from the 1970s when engineers, designers, and architects were finding a way on how to create the world’s first microprocessor. Intel paved its way to the technology world by inventing the microprocessor in 1971 but two engineers made the larger impact by inventing a more advanced electronic component – the microcontroller. In 1971, the microcontroller was invented by two engineers from Texas Instruments – Gary Boone and Michael Cochran (Aycock, n.d.). After its invention, the microcontroller m...
... extent represented within the Intel Itanium Processor, security, scalability, delivering reliability, massive resources, parallelism and a new memory model based on a sound microarchitectural foundation. Because of its efficiency and so tiny in size and independence of out-of-order logic, the most advanced generation Itanium processor delivers best performance without any thermal generation problems. This quality of Itanium makes it a simple but efficient and refined engine that helps in consistent long-term improvement in code execution by small advancement in software, ultimately reducing the importance for significant new improvements in hardware. Microprocessor hardware advancements are becoming more and more difficult as time is progressing and even Moore believes that the exponential upward curve in microprocessor hardware advancements will not go forever.
Microprocessors are different to one another according to the manufacturer and technical specifications. The most important technical specifications of microprocessor are the type and processing speed. The type of microprocessor is defined by the internal structure and basic features .The microprocessors communicate with the rest of the system by means of buses. Buses are sets of parallel electronic conductors set of wires or tracks on the circuit board.
Intel Corporation. (n.d.). Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processors LV and ULV for embeded computing. Retrieved May 23, 2010, from Intel Corporation Web site: http://download.intel.com/design/intarch/prodbref/31578602.pdf
A processor is the chip inside a computer which carries out of the functions of the computer at various speeds. There are many processors on the market today. The two most well known companies that make processors are Intel and AMD. Intel produces the Pentium chip, with the most recent version of the Pentium chip being the Pentium 3. Intel also produces the Celeron processor (Intel processors). AMD produces the Athlon processor and the Duron processor (AMD presents).
Computers are very complex and have many different uses. This makes for a very complex system of parts that work together to do what the user wants from the computer. The purpose of this paper is to explain a few main components of the computer. The components covered are going to be system units, Motherboards, Central Processing Units, and Memory. Many people are not familiar with these terms and their meaning. These components are commonly mistaken for one and other.
abstract model of a computer. It is the part of a computer that relates to programming (basically machine language). The instruction set supply’s commands to the processor, to tell it what it needs to do. An understanding of an ISA is called an implementation. An instruction set permits multiple implementations that may differ in performance, physical size, and expense etc. because the ISA serves as the interface between software and hardware. An ISA defines everything a machine language programmer needs to know in order to program a computer. What an ISA defines differs between ISAs; in general, ISAs define the supported data types, interrupt, memory architecture, registers, addressing modes, instructions, exception handling, and external input/output model. A very good example of an instruction set is the x86 instruction set, which is often found on computers today.
According to Parsons and Oja (2014), they state that a “microprocessor is an integrated circuit designed to process instructions” (p 67).
Software, such as programming languages and operating systems, makes the details of the hardware architecture invisible to the user. For example, computers that use the C programming language or a UNIX operating system may appear the same from the user's viewpoint, although they use different hardware architectures. When a computer carries out an instruction, it proceeds through five steps. First, the control unit retrieves the instruction from memory—for example, an instruction to add two numbers. Second, the control unit decodes the instructions into electronic signals that control the computer.
Its Fourth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor is remarkable for good performance and visuals. It enables the user to feel and see in high definition and 3D; and gives room for multitasking and media. The thrilling speeds are modeled for smooth and seamless games, photos and movies. The chip has a transistor count of 1.4 billion and a die size that is 177 square millimeters. Additionally, it has an incorporated processor graphics, and a dual-channel DDR3 support of up to 1600MHz (Williams & Sawyer, 2010).