[A86] Re: ASM Math
[Prev][Index][Thread]
[A86] Re: ASM Math
Well, normal x86 code on newer x86 processors still get put in the cache. L1
cache, L2 cache all contribute to the faster speed upon reiterations of the
same program. But yeah, a combination of caching techniques along with a
software layer of translation can do a pretty good job apparently of
executing non-primitive code. Crusoe is a cool processor, it has the power
to emulate multiple CPU's it would seem. I'm not sure if Crusoe is going to
knock Intel or AMD of its pedastool anytime soon, since hardware
acceleration will always be faster than software accelerration, especially
now that JIT compilers are becomming more mainstream in normal software
(thus taking advantage of the same JIT recompilation techniques that the
Crusoe uses). Crusoe's advantage is the ability to easily fix bugs, make
optimizations, have a larger MHZ perhaps, and low power. So if crusoe has
25% the performance of an Athlon, but they can produce 4x the clockspeed at
a cheaper price, then yeah, all the better. And it would seem ideal to have
just stacks of this stuff for webservers, which frequently rehash the same
old scripts and webpages day after day.
Matt
> Actually, the Crusoe is a modern processor that (as far as I know) doesn't
> use microcode at all. It has a very specially designed core, and Code
> Morphing software that executes the code for the target platform using
very
> advanced dynamic recompilation techniques. It's probably the only
processor
> on which code actually gets faster as it's executed multiple times. I
> suspect this will be the way most processors are in the future.
>
> There's a really interesting article about it on their site:
>
> http://www.crusoe.com/crusoe/download/pdf/crusoetechwp.pdf
>
> (Not trying to contradict you or anything...just figured I'd mention this
> since it's one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time)
>
> > Modern processors get around this by using microcode, so asm is a higher
> > level than on the z80 and older chips. All the instructions in the z80
> > are hard coded using simple logic gates.
>
>
>
>
>
References: