Intel ARCHITECTURE IA-32 User Manual

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IA-32 Intel
®
Architecture
Processor Family Overview
This chapter gives an overview of the features relevant to software
optimization for the current generations of IA-32 processors, including:
Intel
®
Core™ Solo, Intel
®
Core™ Duo, Intel
®
Pentium
®
4, Intel
®
Xeon
®
, Intel
®
Pentium
®
M, and IA-32 processors with multi-core
architecture. These features include:
• SIMD instruction extensions including MMX
™
technology,
Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE), Streaming SIMD Extensions 2
(SSE2), and Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3)
• Microarchitectures that enable executing instructions with high
throughput at high clock rates, a high speed cache hierarchy and the
ability to fetch data with high speed system bus
• Intel
®
Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel
®
EM64T)
• Intel
®
processors supporting Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology
1
• Multi-core architecture supported in Intel
®
Core™ Duo, Intel
®
Pentium
®
D processors and Pentium
®
processor Extreme Edition
2
Intel Pentium 4 processors, Intel Xeon processors, Pentium D
processors, and Pentium processor Extreme Editions are based on Intel
NetBurst
®
microarchitecture. The Intel Pentium M processor
microarchitecture balances performance and low power consumption.
1. Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel processor
supporting HT Technology and an HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS and operating
system. Performance varies depending on the hardware and software used.
2. Dual-core platform requires an Intel Core Duo, Pentium D processor or Pentium processor
Extreme Edition, with appropriate chipset, BIOS, and operating system. Performance
varies depending on the hardware and software used.

Intel ARCHITECTURE IA-32 Specifications

General

Instruction Set	x86
Instruction Set Type	CISC
Memory Segmentation	Supported
Operating Modes	Real mode, Protected mode, Virtual 8086 mode
Max Physical Address Size	36 bits (with PAE)
Max Virtual Address Size	32 bits
Architecture	IA-32 (Intel Architecture 32-bit)
Addressable Memory	4 GB (with Physical Address Extension up to 64 GB)
Floating Point Registers	8 x 80-bit
MMX Registers	8 x 64-bit
SSE Registers	8 x 128-bit
Registers	General-purpose registers (EAX, EBX, ECX, EDX, ESI, EDI, ESP, EBP), Segment registers (CS, DS, SS, ES, FS, GS), Instruction pointer (EIP), Flags register (EFLAGS)
Floating Point Unit	Yes (x87)