Complex instructions exist because people want to perform complex operations. x86 keeps the conversion of that complex instruction set to the RISC cores on the CPU die itself.

However, the advent of the 64-bit era didn’t signify the end of progress for x86. The first milestone here was the introduction of the baseline AMD64 x86-64 instruction set with MMX, SSE, and SSE2.

The x86-S whitepaper provides an extensive list of the changes brought by the new architecture to the classic x86 instruction set. The 64-bit only ISA removes ring 1 and ring 2 from CPU ...

It expands the entire x86 instruction set, granting access to more registers and introducing new features to enhance overall CPU performance. APX, according to Intel, ...

Intel and AMD took over the server processor market in the mid-2000s. This happened after AMD introduced 64-bit instructions into the x86 instruction set with its Opteron processor architecture.

Rather than extend its 32-bit instruction set, Arm offers a clean 64-bit implementation. To accomplish this, the ARMv8 architecture uses two execution states, AArch32 and AArch64.

“X86” refers to the set of machine language instructions that certain microprocessors from Intel and a few other companies execute. It essentially defines the vocabulary and usage rules for ...

Hello all, I have a question regarding CPU instruction sets. I have heard that the aging x86 instruction set is holding back progress, so to speak. So I ...

The x86 instruction set, first introduced with Intel's 8086 and still alive and well in the Pentium IV, has long been decried as mostly dead. Ironically, most of today's x86-compatibles still ...

The 8086 instruction set is not the only instruction set that modern x86 supports. There are dozens of instruction sets from the well-known floating-point, SSE, ...