X86 PROCESSOR

ARCHITECTURE
MODULE 2
INTRODUCTION

• Underlying hardware associated with x86 assembly language.

• Basic operations that take place inside the processor when instructions are executed.

• Loading and execution of programs by the OS.

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GENERAL CONCEPTS
Basic Microcomputer Design
• The CPU contains a limited number of storage locations (registers), a high-frequency clock, a control
unit (CU) and an arithmetic logic unit (ALU).
• The clock synchronizes the internal operations of the CPU with other system components.

• The control unit (CU) coordinates the sequencing of steps involved in executing machine
instructions.

• The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) performs arithmetic operations such as addition and subtraction
and logical operations such as AND, OR, and NOT.
GENERAL CONCEPTS (CONTD.)
Basic Microcomputer Design (Contd.)
• The memory storage unit is where instructions and data are held while a computer program is running.

• The data bus transfers instructions and data between the CPU and memory.

• The I/O bus transfers data between the CPU and the system input/output devices.

• The control bus uses binary signals to synchronize actions of all devices attached to the system bus.

• The address bus holds the addresses of instructions and data when the currently executing instruction
transfers data between the CPU and memory.

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 Block diagram of a microcomputer

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• Clock
• The basic unit of time for machine
instructions is a machine cycle (or clock
cycle).
• The length of a clock cycle is the time
required for one complete clock pulse.
• The duration of a clock cycle is calculated
as the reciprocal of the clock’s speed,
which in turn is measured in oscillations
per second.
• A clock that oscillates 1 billion times per second
(1 GHz), for example, produces a clock cycle
with a duration of one billionth of a second (1
nanosecond).
• A machine instruction requires at least one
clock cycle to execute.

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Instruction Execution Cycle

• It is a predefined sequence of steps the

CPU goes through to execute a machine
instruction.
• To execute an instruction, the CPU
• Fetches the instruction
• Decodes the instruction
• Fetches the operands
• Executes the instruction
• Stores the result
• These can be simplified to three (3) basic
steps: Fetch, Decode, Execute
A simplified CPU block diagram

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GENERAL CONCEPTS (CONTD.)
Reading from Memory
• Place the address of the value to be read on the address bus.

• Assert (change the value of) the processor’s RD (read) pin.

• Wait one clock cycle for the memory chips to respond.

• Copy the data from the data bus into the destination operand.

• Each of these steps generally requires a single clock cycle, a measurement of

time based on a clock that ticks inside the processor at a regular rate.

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Reading from Memory (Contd.)

• Computer CPUs are often described in terms of their clock speeds.

• A speed of 1.2 GHz, for example, means the clock ticks or oscillates, 1.2 billion times per second.

• So, 4 clock cycles go by fairly fast, considering each one lasts for only 1/1,200,000,000th of a
second.

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Cache Memory
• To reduce the amount of time required to read from and write to memory, the CPU was designed
to store the most recently used instructions and data in high-speed memory called cache.

• When the processor finds its data in cache memory, we call that a cache hit. On the other hand, if
the CPU tries to find something in the cache and it’s not there, it is called a cache miss.

• There are two types of cache memory for the x86 processor:
• Level-1 cache (or primary cache) is stored right on the CPU.

• Level-2 cache (or secondary cache) is a little bit slower and attached to the CPU by a high-
speed data bus.
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How a Program Runs
• The operating system (OS) searches for the
• When the process ends, it is removed from
program’s filename in the current disk directory or
memory.
predetermined list of directories (called paths).
• If the program file is found, the OS retrieves basic
information about the program’s file from the disk
directory, including the file size and its physical
location on the disk drive.
• The OS determines the next available location in
memory and loads the program file into memory.
• The OS begins execution of the program’s first
machine instruction (its entry point). As soon as the
program begins running, it is called a process.

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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS
Modes of Operation

• x86 processors have three primary modes of operation

• Protected Mode

• Virtual-8086 Mode

• Real-Address Mode

• System Management Mode

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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS (CONTD.)
Modes of Operation (Contd.)

• Protected Mode
• native state of the processor

• all instructions and features are available

• programs are given separate memory areas named segments

• the processor prevents programs from referencing memory outside their

assigned segments

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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS (CONTD.)
Modes of Operation (Contd.)

• Virtual-8086 Mode
• It is a hybrid of the protected mode.

• The processor can directly execute real-address mode software

such as MS-DOS programs in a safe environment.

• A modern operating system can execute multiple separate virtual-

8086 sessions at the same time.
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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS (CONTD.)
Modes of Operation (Contd.)

• Real-Address Mode
• implements the programming environment of an early Intel processor
(MS-DOS).

• the ability to switch into other modes

• useful if a program requires direct access to system memory and

hardware devices.

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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS (CONTD.)
Modes of Operation (Contd.)

• System Management Mode

• provides an operating system with a mechanism for implementing
functions such as power management and system security.

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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS (CONTD.)
Basic Execution Environment

• Addressable Memory
• In protected mode, a task or program can address a linear address space of
up to 4 GB

• In real-address and virtual-8086 modes, a task or program can only address

a range of 1 MB

• Beginning with the P6 processor, a technique called extended physical

addressing allows a total of 64 GB of physical memory to be addressed
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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS
• Registers are high-speed storage locations
directly inside the CPU

• They are optimized for speed.

• There are eight general-purpose registers,

six segment registers, a processor status
flags register (EFLAGS), and an instruction
pointer (EIP) Basic program execution registers

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
General-Purpose Registers
• primarily used for arithmetic and data movement.
• Some registers can be accessed with 8-bit, 16-bit or
32-bit names

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
Specialized Uses of Some General-Purpose Registers
• EAX • ESI and EDI
• used by multiplication and division • used by high-speed memory transfer
instructions. instructions.
• called the extended accumulator register. • called the extended source index and
extended destination index registers.
• ECX ➔ loop counter. • EBP
• ESP • used by high-level languages to reference
• addresses data on the stack (a system function parameters and local variables
on the stack.
memory structure).
• called the extended frame pointer
• called the extended stack pointer register. register.

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
Segment Registers

• Segments are preassigned memory areas.

• In real-address mode, 16-bit segment registers indicate the base addresses of

segments.

• In protected mode, segment registers hold pointers to segment descriptor tables.

• CS ➔ holds program instructions (code)

• DS ➔ holds variables (data)

• SS ➔ holds local function variables and function parameters.

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
• The EIP, or instruction pointer, register contains the address of the
next instruction to be executed.
• Some machine instructions manipulate EIP, causing the program to branch
to a new location.

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
EFLAGS Register

• The EFLAGS (or just Flags) register consists of individual binary bits
that control the operation of the CPU or reflect the outcome of some
CPU operation.

• A flag is set when it equals 1; it is clear (or reset) when it equals 0.

• Control Flags control the CPU’s operation.

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
Status Flags
• The status flags reflect the outcomes of arithmetic and logical operations
performed by the CPU.
• The Carry flag (CF) is set when the result of an unsigned arithmetic
operation is too large to fit into the destination.
• The Overflow flag (OF) is set when the result of a signed arithmetic
operation is too large or too small to fit into the destination.
• The Sign flag (SF) is set when an arithmetic or logical operation generates
a negative result.
• The Zero flag (ZF) is set when an arithmetic or logical operation generates
a result of zero.
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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
Status Flags
• The Auxiliary Carry flag (AC) is set when an arithmetic operation
causes a carry from bit 3 to bit 4 in an 8-bit operand.
• The Parity flag (PF) is set if the least-significant byte in the result
contains an even number of 1 bits.
• In general, it is used for error checking when there is a possibility that
data might be altered or corrupted.

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BASIC PROGRAM EXECUTION REGISTERS (CONTD.)
• MMX Registers
• MMX technology improves the performance of Intel
processors when implementing advanced multimedia and
communications applications.
• The eight 64-bit MMX registers support special
instructions called SIMD (Single-Instruction,
Multiple-Data).
• XMM Registers
• The eight 128-bit registers are used by streaming
SIMD extensions (SSE) to the instruction set.
• Floating-Point Unit (FPU)
• It performs high-speed floating-point arithmetic.
• There are eight floating-point data registers in the
FPU, named ST(0), ST(1), ST(2), ST(3), ST(4), ST(5),
ST(6), and ST(7).

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32-BIT X86 PROCESSORS (CONTD.)
x86 Memory Management
• The x86 processor’s memory is managed according to its basic
operation modes.

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X86 MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Real-Address Mode
• only 1 MB of memory can be addressed, from hexadecimal 00000
to FFFFF.
• The processor can run only one program at a time, but it can
momentarily interrupt that program to process requests (called
interrupts) from peripherals.
• Application programs are permitted to access any memory location,
including addresses that are linked directly to system hardware.
• The MS-DOS operating system runs in real-address mode, and
Windows 95 and 98 can be booted into this mode.

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X86 MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Protected Mode
• the processor can run multiple programs at the same time.
• It assigns each process (running program) a total of 4 GB of memory.
• Each program can be assigned its own reserved memory area, and
programs are prevented from accidentally accessing each other’s
code and data.
• Windows and Linux run in protected mode.

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X86 MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Virtual-8086 Mode
• the computer runs in protected mode and creates a virtual-8086
machine with its own 1-MByte address space that simulates an 80x86
computer running in real-address mode.

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64-BIT X86-64 PROCESSORS
• Basic architectural details of all 64-bit processors that use the x86-64
instruction set.
• The x86-64 instruction set is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set.
• It is backwards-compatible with the x86 instruction set.
• Addresses are 64 bits long, allowing for a virtual address space of size
2^64 bytes.
• It can use 64-bit general-purpose registers, allowing instructions to have
64-bit integer operands.
• It uses eight more general-purpose registers than the x86.
• It uses a 48-bit physical address space, which supports up to 256
terabytes of RAM.
• Core i5 and Core i7 processors are examples of processors that use the
x86-64 instruction set.
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64-BIT X86-64 PROCESSORS
64-Bit Operation Modes
• Compatibility Mode
• existing 16-bit and 32-bit applications can run without being recompiled.
• 16-bit Windows (Win16) and DOS applications will not run in 64-bit Microsoft
Windows.
• 64-Bit Mode
• This is the native mode for 64-bit Microsoft Windows.
• This mode enables 64-bit instruction operands.

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BASIC 64-BIT EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT
• Theoretically, addresses can be as large as 64-bits but processors only support 48 bits for
addresses.
• Sixteen 64-bit general-purpose registers
• Eight 80-bit floating-point registers
• A 64-bit status flags register named RFLAGS (only the lower 32 bits are used)
• A 64-bit instruction pointer named RIP
• Eight 64-bit MMX registers
• Sixteen 128-bit XMM registers

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 READ
• Components of a Typical x86 Computer

• Input–Output System

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