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Intel Publishes "X86-S" Specification For 64-bit Only Architecture
Intel quietly released a new whitepaper and specification for their proposal on "X86-S" as a 64-bit only x86 architecture. If their plans workout, in the years ahead we could see a revised 64-bit only x86 architecture.
Entitled "Envisioning a Simplified Intel Architecture", Intel engineers lay the case for a 64-bit mode-only architecture. Intel is still said to be investigating the 64-bit mode-only architecture that they also refer to as "x86S". Intel is hoping to solicit industry feedback while they continue to explore a 64-bit mode only ISA.
[...] Under this proposal, those wanting to run legacy 32-bit operating systems would have to rely on virtualization. To further clarify, 32-bit x86 user-space software would continue to work on modern 64-bit operating systems with X86-S.
Also at Tom's Hardware.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Monday May 22, @12:41PM (2 children)
The advantage of a 128 bit data bus isn't the likely wider address bus but how cool it would be to move quad-precision floats in one move.
If you go 256 bit data bus that provides enough decimals of precision that 'lots' of float applications can be replaced by faster fixed point int. Some 256 bit GPUs did/do that.
512 bit data path would get you roughly 150 decimal fixed points of precision much faster than floating point. I remember later (or higher number LOL) GTX 200 series GPUs had 512 bit memory busses.
Its interesting as GPUs get wider, the smallest data bus in the average PC is probably the keyboard controller, but the second smallest is likely the main CPU.
Ironically given the topic of the story, Intel's AVX-512 extensions are one decade old this year, so if you had a mid 2010s Skylake Intel processor, you had a partially 512 bit CPU...
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday May 22, @01:23PM (1 child)
I am wondering about performance difference between fixed/floating. My understanding is that floating point is fully pipelined, i.e. there is a 1 IPC throughput. Is this correct? How many pipeline stages are there for floating point? How many for fixed?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 22, @04:06PM
The clock time is always faster for fixed, its just less complex than float.